Saikai
by Peter Smith
Summary: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers/Power Rangers Samurai crossover! Sequel to "Seito". Ten years after the events of MMPRs1, Jason, Trini, Billy, Zac, Kimberly and Tommy are dealing with careers, families, mortgages and boredom, when an injured boy staggers into the Youth Centre one night and draws them out of retirement with three words. "Jayden's in trouble."
1. Prologue

_Author's notes – Hi! Welcome back everyone. Sorry for the long wait between stories. I had a rough year, last year, and this one took me a while. This is the longest PR story I've ever written. "Vigiliante" had more words, but "Saikai" was a larger file, and had an extra page to it. _

_This is the long-awaited sequel to my Samurai/Mighty Morphin' team-up called "Seito", which I wrote last year. If you haven't read "Seito", you might be confused by a couple of little plot points here, but it isn't required reading. Trust me, I explain everything as we go. The thing is, when I wrote "Seito", I was proud of it, and people liked it. But a few people said that it could've been bigger. I hadn't designed "Seito" to be a full crossover between the two teams ... but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that yeah, there was a lot of potential for an awesome story there. So here we are. This time, everybody is involved. There's full interaction between both teams, there's wild battle scenes, crazy villains ... and because I only wrote 2 zord battles all last year, I promise there will be giant robots. And lots of them._

_If you only came into the PR fandom recently, and you're only familiar with the Samurai team, don't worry. Again, I explain everything as we go. You won't be lost. And for the record, if you are unfamiliar with the MMPR kids, then my best advice is to sit back, strap yourselves in, and get ready for a fun ride :). Like "Seito", I understand that the timeline is out of whack, here, and I apologise for that. The MMPR kids would be a lot older than the PRS kids, in official continuity. But ... one of my favourite comic book writers once said that, never let continuity get in the way of a great story. And that's my best advice to everyone reading this. If you've got a great idea, don't worry about continuity, just commit to it, and write something awesome. So t__he MMPR kids are all about 27, while Jayden is in his early 20s and Mike/Emily are 16/17. __In that vein ... yeah, I know that there are powers and giant robots that were destroyed years ago. My thinking was that, it's _Power Rangers_, and a lot of things happen (and get rebuilt) off-camera. _

_A little note – I really enjoyed the big-brother/little-brother relationship between Jayden and Mike (notice when Jayden leaves, it's Mike who's the most devastated. In "Samurai Forever" when Jayden says he has a plan that requires them to demorph, Mike's the first one to demorph). But I really wanted them to explore that friendship more, so there's a few moments here when I really focus on that relationship. They were my two favourite characters. _

_Wow this is a long note. For the time-line? For the MMPR team, this story takes place 10 years after MMPR season 1. In terms of the Samurai kids, this story takes place a day after the episode "Stroke of Fate", and Serrator's just been destroyed. That's where we start. Oh, and finally, "Saikai" is the Japanese word for old friends reuniting. I thought I'd stick with the theme, and that fits the story perfectly. Now, enough of me talking. I hope you guys all enjoy this story. Let's get on with the show!_

* * *

**Prologue**

The Shiba house was burning.

An explosion nearby tore Mike out of his dreams. Blinking away the haze of sleep, he gazed around the room and tried to make sense of the nightmare surrounding him. He could hear fire crackling nearby, and wisps of black smoke were just drifting into his room. He sat up, feeling totally lost, when another explosion rocked the house. This one was a lot closer, like it had come from the kitchen. There were shouts and screams on all sides. Some of them sounded human, while most were decidedly not. Throwing his blankets aside, he climbed out of bed and reached for his morpher. A half-second of symbol power later and he was dressed.

Throwing the door open, he found himself face-to-face with a crowd of Moogers.

Mike froze. They were in the house.

That wasn't possible.

The Moogers were just as surprised to see Mike, and he used their second of hesitation to attack. Kicking the closest demon away, he struck out for the Mooger on the left and swung a wild punch for the creature on the right. By now, the demons had recovered from their initial surprise. Without slowing down, Mike fought his way out into the corridor, fending off attacks with every step. But the smoke was thicker here. He took a second to try and gulp in some air, and it cost him. A blow to the chest slammed him back into the wall. Seeing stars, he tried desperately to defend himself. Blocking a low swipe, he swung a sharp right hook, but the Mooger struck away his arm then slammed its boot into his chest, launching him backwards into the air.

He smashed through a wall, tumbling to the ground in the kitchen in a pile of rubble. Dazed, Mike fought to pick himself up. Bleeding and limping badly, he turned to the rest of the house.

The kitchen was gone. The building had been torn apart, and the only walls still standing were burning. Over his head, barely visible through the smoke, he could see the stars. There were dozens of Moogers all around him, clambering through the wreckage as if appearing out of thin air. But none of the gaps around him were glowing. He glanced around fearfully as a crowd of the beasts closed in, when there was a flash of blue light and the Moogers were blasted away from him in a shower of sparks. He smiled as the smoke cleared and Kevin raced to his side, holding his spin sword high and keeping the remaining Moogers at bay.

"Kev!" Mike shouted. "What the hell is going on? How did they get in?"

Kevin shook his head. "I've got no idea," he replied, as the two Rangers stood back-to-back and stared down the circle of Nighlok demons.

"Where is everyone?"

"I don't know," Kevin panted. "I haven't seen anyone. Ji and Antonio were outside working on something when I went to bed. I think Jayden was training with Mia, and…"

Mike's eyes flew wide. "Emily!" he said. But looking past the Moogers, all he could see was smoke and fire. "We need to find Emily!" he continued. "Kev, we have to… we have…" but his voice broke off. The heat from the fire was fading, and he suddenly realised his teeth were chattering. "Kev, is it… are you… cold?"

The Moogers backed away, and the Rangers turned to the hole in the wall, looking outside to see a tall figure approaching the house. Whatever it was, it wasn't human, with cool maroon eyes and a piercing, canine-stare. The demon's helmet and armour were covered in twisted metal spikes like dripping icicles, while Mike could see blue fur on the creature's neck and arms, matted with melting ice. With every step, Mike noticed the fire around the demon dying, a nearby water pipe freezing solid as the demon glided past. But as they watched, the Nighlok turned to face them and pointed a glowing arm towards them.

"Look out!" Kevin shouted. He stepped in front of Mike to protect the younger Ranger, but it was too late. The blast of energy slammed into them, throwing the boys away from each other and smashing Mike back through a wall, where he crashed to a tangled heap in the middle of the dojo. The room was clear of Moogers, and Mike blinked away stars, shivering at the intense burst of cold. Coughing, with every part of him hurting, Mike looked around.

"Kevin?" he shouted, his voice hoarse. "Kevin!"

The doors were suddenly torn apart, and Moogers poured into the room towards him. Trapped and hurt, Mike raised his arms to protect himself as the creatures raised their swords high.

But as their blades flashed towards him, a voice rang out.

"Fire smasher!"

A gigantic red sword swept down over Mike, launching the Moogers away in a clean strike, before a second sweep slammed an entire crowd of them back into the wall. Mike turned from the Moogers to the young man standing behind him.

"Jayden!" he shouted.

Jayden's hair was matted against his face. His clothes were torn and he was bleeding, but he offered Mike a hand and helped the Green Ranger to his feet.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked quickly. On all sides, the Moogers were picking themselves off the floor.

"I'm still standing," Jayden said. "That's all I got. Have you seen the others?"

"Kevin was in the living room, but I don't know where anyone else is," Mike said. He glanced around. Moogers were still pouring into the room, surrounding them and cutting off their escape. They were trapped. "Jayden, what do we do?"

Jayden gazed around helplessly. "I don't know," he admitted.

A dozen Moogers charged towards them, but Jayden smashed them away with a wide swing of the fire smasher.

"Look out!" Mike shouted. Jayden spun around to see energy blasts whistling towards them. Grabbing Mike, he dragged him down behind the sword, using the flat of the blade like a shield and holding the Green Ranger close.

"We have to get the others," Mike said.

Jayden lowered his head. "No," he said. "Mike, there's too many of them. The house is gone. I can hold 'em off for a little while, but…"

"What are you saying?"

Jayden met Mike's gaze. Mike had never before seen that look in Jayden's grey eyes, and hoped he never would again. "Mike, you have to get help. Here," and Jayden held out his hand. With a flash of symbol power, a business card appeared in Jayden's palm, and he gave it to Mike.

Mike glanced over the card. "Youth Centre?" he read.

"You need to go there," Jayden said tersely. "Ask for Jason! Tell him everything, but don't talk to anyone else. Got it?"

"Are you sure? I mean…"

"It's our only hope," Jayden said. "You have to go now!"

"But Jayden, I can't leave you!"

Jayden wrapped his free arm around Mike's shoulder and pulled him close. Mike buried his head in Jayden's chest. Safe for just a second, Jayden kissed Mike lightly on the head. "You have to go, little brother," he said, so softly Mike almost didn't hear him. "Go now. _Go_!"

Mike leaped to his feet and sprinted for the wall. The Moogers in front of him raised their swords, but were swept aside with a blast of energy. Reaching the wall, Mike turned back to see Jayden in the centre of the room with the fire smasher held high. Jayden nodded and charged into the crowd of Moogers. The Red Ranger's blade flashed through the air, sending Moogers flying with every strike and keeping their attention away from Mike.

At the door, a second towering figure emerged from the smoke. This demon was more terrifying than the first, and Mike tried to shout a warning, but his voice was lost to the battle. The demon's armour was curved and bent like licks of flame. On one side, the metal plates had melted and oozed into each other. He had burning blue eyes and a face of reptilian scales, with a snout that ended in a pair of smoking nostrils over a mouth of jagged red teeth. A haze of intense heat surrounded him, and with every step, the floor burned beneath him. Mike's blood ran cold as the demon spotted him, and the Nighlok held out his arms, channelling a firestorm into his armoured fists before slamming them together. Mike dived through the wall to safety as the dojo lit up behind him.

Rolling to his feet, Mike ran for the front gates without looking back. Reaching the street, he kept going, soon disappearing into the shadows as the dancing flames lit up the night sky behind him.

_To be continued._


	2. Chapter 1

_Author's notes - Brankel and Jokermask, hey! Thanks for your comments, it was great to hear from you :). Kekejo99, thanks so much :). Ae11021, actually, I hadn't realised just how many powers Tommy has to choose from. The powers Tommy ends up using are significant for his particular subplot, which you'll see a hint of, starting this chapter. Son of Whitebeard, the Samurai tapestry was so rich in terms of villains that I didn't need to look too further, but I tried to make these two villains as dynamic and interesting as possible. You'll see more of that as we go. As a quick note before we start, the 28th was the date (in August) when "_Day of the Dumpster_" first aired on US television. That's important here. __Anyway, here's the first chapter. Enjoy :).  
_

* * *

**Chapter One**

With a tired yawn, Jason Scott opened his eyes to the familiar sight of his bedroom. His body was still sore from yesterday, and he stretched out to test his aching muscles. Soft grey light was filtering in through the window, and looking past the trees in the garden, he could see the sky was overcast. It wasn't quite sunny, but wasn't raining either.

Jason smiled to himself. Another one of _those_ days.

Anything could happen on those days.

Reaching for the bedside table, his fingers closed around his communicator, and he fastened the familiar metal band around his wrist like he'd done every morning for the last decade. Ready for the day, he swung his legs out over the mattress and climbed out of bed.

He suddenly heard noises from downstairs. That was odd. The Red Ranger's eyes narrowed and he crept towards the door, but then he heard the noise again and realised what it was – pots and pans clanking together in the kitchen. He laughed, and headed downstairs.

Stepping into the kitchen, Jason immediately saw Zac sitting at the counter halfway though a towering pile of Belgian waffles, complete with ice-cream, diced strawberries and chocolate syrup. Hearing footsteps, Zac looked up to see Jason approach, and he greeted one of his oldest friends with a grin.

"Good morning!" the Black Ranger beamed.

Jason pulled the seat out beside him and joined Zac at the counter. "You know," Jason began, "I gave you my spare key for emergencies, Zac."

"My waffle-maker was broken," Zac replied matter-of-factly. "Clearly your definition of emergency is not the same as mine. Oh, and you're out of ice-cream. I added it to the list," and Zac pointed to the shopping list pinned to the front of the fridge.

Jason smiled. "Thanks."

"The place is quiet," Zac said. It was hard to hear him through a mouthful of waffles, but Jason had decades of experience in deciphering Zac. "Oh, here," and he handed Jason the newspaper he'd grabbed off the front lawn. "I figured I'd save you the trip."

"Thank you," Jason said. Spreading the newspaper out in front of him, he quickly glanced through it as Zac continued demolishing his breakfast. Skimming through the international news, Jason nodded to himself. "Nothing too bad," he murmured. "The world's safe."

"Only you would sound disappointed by that."

Jason stepped across the kitchen and filled the kettle with water. "Don't you have classes this morning Zachary?" he asked.

"No, mostly because it's Saturday," the Black Ranger replied. "Of a long weekend. But no wonder you're a day behind. Your body is still in the wrong time zone. I saw the news last night. You spent all yesterday fighting off a raid of serpent demons on Buenos Aires with the Mystic Force Rangers."

The kettle started boiling, and Jason poured himself a cup of tea. "Nick and Madison say hi, by the way."

"Yeah, well, I found this on the bench here," Zac continued. Reaching into his pocket, he held up Jason's morpher. Jason blushed, and he quickly took the morpher and sat down opposite. "I know that Billy and Alpha's security means that our homes are the safest places in the world, but are you sure you want to be leaving that out like that?"

Jason stared at the morpher in his hand for a long time before replying. "I'm still the Red Ranger, you know?" he said, and sighed. "I know it's been years since the Countdown war, but I still feel like a Red Ranger all the time. No, that's not even true. I feel like _the_ Red Ranger. I keep waiting for that to go away but it hasn't yet."

"I know," Zac nodded. "Your put that communicator on every morning. I've watched you do it. Meanwhile, you missed three calls from Emily yesterday, and I had to cover for your students."

"Emily?" Jason repeated. "Damn. I should go talk to her."

"Yeah. You really should. She's missing you."

Jason raced away, dashing up the stairs. "You're a life-saver Zac!"

Watching him go, Zac smiled. "You coming tonight?"

Thumps along the ceiling told him that Jason was getting changed. "Are you kidding? I'm not gonna miss it!"

"Good," Zac said. "There's hope for you yet. And invite Emily this time!"

* * *

"Kimberly!" Tommy shouted, as the Pink Ranger stepped down out of the shop. "Kim, over here!"

Sweeping her gaze over the lunch-time crowd, Kimberly spotted Tommy standing by the curb. "Hey Tommy," she called, and weaving her way through the mass of pedestrians, she soon reached the Green Ranger and wrapped her arms around him. Tommy returned the hug for a few seconds, and the two stepped back.

"It's good to see you again," Kimberly began. "It feels like weeks since we last caught up."

"Closer to a month."

"Sorry," Kim said. "I've just been so busy with the shop."

"That's okay," Tommy said. "There's a little place down on the boardwalk overlooking the water. I thought we could try it out?"

"Sounds awesome," Kim smiled. She offered him her hand, and with their arms linked, they joined the crowd.

"It looks like the shop's going well," Tommy said.

"It's been crazy busy," Kim replied. "Our music nights are booked out weeks in advance. And our barista won second prize in the best coffee in town comp this year."

"I'll definitely come visit more often," Tommy said. "How goes the gymnastics?"

"I missed the cut-off for the Olympics this year," Kim replied. "But Coach Schmidt says that if I take a break from the shop, I have a real shot at the next Commonwealth Games. It's the one thing I never did. Now I have the time, I'd love to try." She paused as they waited for the lights to change at an intersection. "So how's life on your end? How's Kat?"

"We're good," the Green Ranger replied. "Kat's out of town visiting her grandparents right now."

"Are you still working with the coast guard?"

Tommy shook his head. "A life at sea wasn't for me," he said. "My stomach didn't agree with the ocean. For the second time this year, I'm officially unemployed."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I still have some money saved from that time I tried to make it as a stock racer. Seriously, what was I thinking doing that?"

The Pink Ranger giggled. "You'll be all right," she said. "My brother has, like, five years on us, and he still doesn't know what he wants to do either. I think some people just take time to figure this stuff out, you know? You'll get there."

"You haven't given up on me yet?"

"Never," Kim said. "I tell you what, one of our regulars works at the museum. She says there's an internship opening up in a couple of weeks. You should totally apply."

"At the museum?" Tommy asked doubtfully, and then paused. "History always was one of my best subjects. Remember I minored in ancient history at college."

"Plus, c'mon," Kim added. "Your job history tells us that you like exciting and dangerous. And if all those years as a Ranger taught me anything…"

"It's that museums are the place for that," Tommy nodded. "I'll think about it."

"Who knows? You might even become a palaeontologist or something."

As they turned a corner, the crowd around them grew significantly larger. Looking ahead, Tommy could see a troupe of entertainers by the entrance to the city park, standing on a small raised platform before an audience of dozens of small children. Onstage, brightly-clad figures in spandex were battling a succession of foam-suited monsters. The two Rangers stopped to watch the crowd of enthralled youngsters.

"They've been here all week," Kim said. "It's kinda cute."

Up ahead, the evil Green Ranger suddenly appeared, and the hero-actors froze in fear, before launching themselves at their new opponent while the crowd cheered and roared with delight. Kimberly frowned. Without another word, she grabbed Tommy's arm and steered him across the street.

Tommy laughed. "It's fine, really," he said. "I've made my peace with the evil Green Ranger a long time ago. Still," and Kimberly saw him glance over his shoulder. There was something melancholy in his eyes, but it was gone just as quickly. "I guess it's still a little sore. But time heals all wounds, right? I can't change what happened."

Kimberly sighed with relief. "Good. While we're on the subject, are you coming tonight?"

"Hell yes," Tommy replied. "Trini said that they're bringing Ryan. We haven't spent nearly enough time with our godson."

"You're not wrong," Kimberly agreed. "I haven't seen Ryan in months. He is Billy and Trini's son, though. He's probably already learned a second language. Pick me up at six?"

"It's a date!" Tommy said, then froze. "But, not. Don't tell Kat I said that. Oh look, here's the café…"

Kimberly laughed, and followed him inside.

* * *

Climbing out of the car, Trini reached back for the pile of folders and case notes lying on the backseat. Locking the door, she couldn't help but notice the long shadows draped over the front yard. Was it sunset already? She frowned and brushed a long strand of dark hair back behind her ear. It was bad enough having to work all Saturday, but how on Earth did the day manage to slip by so quickly?

Unlocking the front door, Trini stepped inside. There at the dining table was Billy Cranston, typing on his laptop with every available square centimetre of space around him covered by wires, flashing lights and blinking devices. A few feet behind Billy, Ryan lay in his crib, currently grasping at a squeaking yellow toy tiger.

Trini smiled. Regardless of everything else, it was good to be home.

Billy looked up as Trini slid the case notes onto her desk. "Hey," Billy called, pulling his glasses off and massaging his eyes. Trini stepped over and kissed him lightly on the forehead.

"How are my two favourite Cranston men?" Trini asked. Reaching into the crib, she picked up Ryan, and Billy followed her over to the couch. Ryan giggled, grasping at his mother's fingers as they sat down together.

"He had a quiet day," Billy said. "Meanwhile, the experiment I've been running in the lab?" and he nodded to the garage behind the house. "It's showing results within the expected parameters already. I need to submit a report by next week, but it should be concluded by the end of the weekend. Which is excellent," and he leaned down to brush the blond curls on Ryan's head. "Because it gives the pair of us more paternal bonding days."

"I almost wish you weren't so efficient," Trini said. "It feels like it's been a week since I spent time with either of you. When I'm here at home, I'm either sleeping, eating, or reading case files."

"How was your day?" Billy asked.

"Long," Trini replied. "We have a new patient. I just can't figure him out."

"You'll come up with something brilliant," Billy said.

"I hope so," Trini sighed. "It's just what we need though. More time away from each other. At least we have tonight."

"I've been jubilantly anticipating this occasion for days now," Billy nodded.

Trini laughed. The more excited Billy got, the more impossible he was to decipher. "It'll be good to spend some time not working," she agreed.

"Speaking of which," Billy began, "Zachary dropped by this afternoon to borrow our waffle-maker. He seemed excited for the occasion as well."

At that, Ryan giggled. The smell reached their noses at the same time. Billy frowned, while Trini smiled helplessly. "I think someone needs a change," she said, and turned to her husband. "Just think Mr Cranston, you traded studying dark matter in Switzerland to be elbow-deep in nappies."

Billy waved his hand. "The Bern facility will still be there in a few years," he replied, then frowned. "Hopefully. But our little scientist is likely to grow up faster than we realise. I'd honestly rather be here to observe that happen. Actually, I just remembered I didn't get around to sorting the washing."

Trini stood up. Her eyes were watering. "I'll take care of our little man, and you can do that."

"You're sure? I don't…"

"Affirmative," Trini replied.

Billy stood up, but stopped by the door and turned back to his wife. "I love you Trini," he said.

Trini smiled, but her expression soon fell. Holding her son close, she stepped into the bedroom.

* * *

The Youth Centre carpark was almost empty as Tommy and Kimberly pulled in and parked by the front door. The stars tonight were hidden by a veil of thick cloud. The night was cool and quiet, and a light mist began falling as Tommy locked the car. Jogging over to the front entrance, the two Rangers quickly ducked inside.

"I can't believe this place is still here," Tommy murmured, as they stepped through the deserted foyer.

"I know it's been rebuilt a few times," Kim nodded. "But this place is as much a part of the city as we are." Glancing over to the wall, she spotted a new display that hadn't been there the last time she'd visited, a line of pictures protected by wooden frames and heavy glass. "Oh hey, check this out."

Wandering over, they soon saw that behind the glass were dozens of photos, stories and articles about the Power Rangers. Battles the team had fought, monsters they'd faced, and days when they'd stopped the sky from falling. Kimberly peered closer, and saw a photo of the Megazord facing off with the Spit Flower monster. "You remember that?" she asked. "The day the city was almost eaten by a swarm of homicidal flower blossoms."

Tommy laughed. "That was a weird one," he said. "Let's head inside."

Stepping into the building proper, they gazed around the wide space, empty but for four people and a pram up by the Juice Bar. Kimberly smiled. There was Jason and Zac, with Billy, Trini and baby Ryan. Hearing their friends arrive, the group turned to greet their two final members.

"You're late!" called Zac.

"Tommy forgot," said Kim.

"I didn't forget!" Tommy exclaimed. "It just kind of slipped my mind a little."

Kimberly and Tommy stepped over to the bar to join the group. Jason and Tommy immediately hugged, while Kimberly and Trini pulled each other close.

"So how's our little man?" Kimberly asked, scooping Ryan out of his pram and bouncing him in her arms. "Wow, he's growing up fast."

Zac whistled as Kim passed Ryan to Tommy. "I can't believe a couple of us have one of these," Zac said. "I still feel like one of these."

"We know," Jason said, and Zac laughed.

"It's my favourite customers!" came a voice, and everybody turned to see Ernie step out of the kitchen.

"Ernie!" Kimberly cried, and gave him a quick hug. "How are you?"

"Great," Ernie smiled. "My new diet's going fantastic. I'm down two sizes. But I'm glad to see you kids. I was worried you wouldn't show."

Billy adjusted his glasses. "Have we gotten predictable?"

"C'mon," Ernie said, and pointed to the calendar on the wall behind the bar. "It's the twenty-eighth day of the month. That's Power Ranger day, the date the Rangers first showed up all those years ago. You kids never miss it, although you're usually here earlier."

"Kids?" Zac repeated. "Ernie, some of us have kids of our own."

Ernie blushed. "Force of habit," he replied. "It just means I'm a grandpa these days," and he leaned over to tickle Ryan, who giggled. "Listen, I'm doing inventory out the back. It'll probably be a quiet night, so if you need anything…"

"We learned how to use the juice machine about nine years ago," Jason said.

"Fair enough," Ernie said. With a final smile, he retreated inside.

"So that'll be six fruit juice smoothies?" Kim asked.

"I'll help you carry them," Trini said, and they made their way up towards the counter.

"It's great to see you," Jason said to Tommy, as Billy took Ryan.

"I wouldn't miss this," Tommy replied. "Like Ernie said, it's Power Ranger day."

As one, the four guys turned to the stairs, each one focussing their gaze on the same spot. "You remember that day?" Zac asked.

Jason nodded. "We were all standing right there," he said.

"The building's been demolished and renovated multiple times," Billy added, "but that was the spot where we changed. Ten years and five months ago. I can still recall it like it was yesterday."

"Me too," Jason said.

Over behind the counter, Kimberly pulled a tray free and began placing drinks on it. "Ryan's adorable," she said. "He'll be a handful before you know it."

"Like we were?" Trini laughed.

"How is married life treating you?"

"It's good," Trini replied, but Kim noticed that her smile faded. "It's not great, it's just… it's good."

"You guys having trouble?" Kim asked.

Trini reached for a handful of straws. "It's nothing serious," she began. "It's just, with careers and responsibilities and Ryan, Billy and I don't seem to have any time for each other anymore. Is that a selfish thing to want? Am I being a bad mother?"

"Of course not," Kim replied. "You and Billy are the best parents in the world. We might not be saving the world anymore, but you still need time to catch your breath. For whatever it's worth, I don't think that's a bad thing, not at all."

Carrying the six juice smoothies, they walked back over to rejoin the guys, and everyone sat down around the nearest table. Trini passed out the drinks as Billy rested Ryan back in his pram.

"So what are we toasting tonight?" Zac asked.

"To us?" Trini suggested, and then frowned. "Wait, no. That's terribly pretentious. Let's not do that."

"To Zordon?" Tommy asked, looking around the group.

"We did that last time," Billy replied.

"Okay," Jason began. "How about, to all the friends we made, and all the young men and women who have no idea what they're getting themselves into?"

Everyone laughed. "Sounds good," Kim nodded.

"Cheers," Zac smiled.

Footsteps suddenly echoed out of the foyer. The six Rangers all turned to see a teenage boy stagger into the building, limping badly and holding onto the wall in a clear battle to stay upright. He seemed barely conscious, and looked all of sixteen. He had short dark hair and a green t-shirt caked with dirt and dried blood. Glancing frantically around the room, his gaze fell onto the six Rangers.

Everyone was on their feet in a second. Tommy jogged down towards the boy with the other Rangers a step behind. Billy and Trini stayed back with the pram.

"Can we help you?" Tommy asked.

"Jason," the boy stammered, his voice almost lost to the hum of the building's air-conditioning. "I need to talk to Jason. I can't… I need to find Jason."

Jason glanced to Zac, then stepped over towards the boy. But as Jason reached him, the boy's legs collapsed out from under him. Jason caught him as he fell. "That's me," the Red Ranger said quickly. "I'm Jason. Who are you? What do you need? Are you hurt?"

The boy's dark eyes glanced over Jason and he nodded, before speaking in a voice so quiet Jason almost didn't hear him. "Jayden's in trouble," he murmured, before shutting his eyes and slipping into unconsciousness.

_To be continued._


	3. Chapter 2

_Author's notes - thanks you guys and gals for the feedback :). I'm happy you're enjoying the story. jg13145 - Jayden was my favourite character, but I really adored Mike, so - while the other Samurai Rangers are missing - we'll be spending a lot more time with Mike, and you'll get to see how he responds to being other Rangers (who he doesn't know are Rangers. Yet). Gypsymooneysgirl - my stories always lean more towards action, than romance, but keep reading. From chapter three onwards, you'll see some hints of things, here and there :). ae11021 - indeed, one of the joys of writing the MMPR team is that they do know each other so well, and it becomes a lot of fun hanging out with some old friends. Anyway, into chapter two... Enjoy! :) _

* * *

**Chapter Two**

"What did he say?" asked Kimberly.

"Something about Jayden," Tommy replied. "Jayden's in trouble. But Jayden who?"

"C'mon," said Jason. "Let's get him up to the bar."

Balancing the boy between them, Jason and Zac carried him up the stairs and then over towards the bar. Tommy and Trini pushed tables and chairs out of the way to clear some space, and Jason and Zac lowered him to the ground and leaned him back against the counter.

Trini leaned down to check his breathing. "Jason, what do we do?" she asked.

Jason knelt down beside the Yellow Ranger, suddenly feeling the weight of five gazes. Juggling career responsibilities and dating, these were things he'd struggled with for a long time. But this? This was easy. If he was being honest with himself, it always had been. He felt the familiar fire surge back through him, and stood up to face the other Rangers. All five of them saw the change instantly. The Red Ranger was standing taller, taking in everything around him, and when he spoke, his voice was sharper and clearer.

"Tommy, go and check the carpark," Jason said. "Make sure nothing's following this kid, then lock the doors. Kim?"

"I'm going with him," Kim said.

Jason nodded. "Billy, get Ryan home and out of danger," he continued.

"Affirmative," said Billy, and reached for his son in the pram, Ryan blissfully unaware of the emergency unfolding around him.

"But also, check the web," Jason said. "Make some calls. See if anything weird happened today that we might've missed." Billy nodded. With Ryan in his arms, he dashed after Tommy and Kim. "Trini and Zac, we need to…"

The kitchen door swung open, and Ernie charged outside holding a whisker high. "I heard the noise!" he said breathily. "What's all the commotion?" But before anyone could reply, Ernie caught sight of the teenage boy on the floor beneath them. His eyes flew wide. "What happened?"

Zac shrugged. Following Jason, he'd shifted into Ranger-mode without even thinking about it, and knew that it was time to start withholding information. "He just staggered in and collapsed," the Black Ranger replied. "We know as much as you do."

"So this is one of those things I shouldn't ask too much about?" Ernie said.

"Possibly," Jason said.

"All right then," the Juice Bar owner nodded. "Is he at least okay?"

"I'm checking him over," Trini said, and they all crowded around her. "I think he's okay. I can't see anything really serious. I suspect he's exhausted, though. It looks like he's just run a marathon."

Ernie stood up. "I'll go and get some water. Trini, grab the first-aid kit."

"Got it," Trini said, and dashed behind the counter.

Gazing down over the unconscious teenager, Zac's attention was drawn to a strange device jutting out of the boy's shirt pocket. He reached down and pulled it free, stepping back as Trini and Ernie returned and ducking over to where Jason stood watching.

"You know this kid?" Zac asked. "He knew who he was looking for."

"I've never met him before in my life," Jason replied. "And this Jayden? I've had plenty of students named Jayden over the years. I'm drawing a blank."

"Then this might help," Zac whispered, and held up the device. Jason's face fell. "I grabbed this out of his pocket when Ernie ducked inside," Zac continued. "We've both done this long enough to know exactly what this is."

Jason took the device out of Zac's hand. "This is a morpher," he said softly, and then frowned. "They're always phones these days." Wary of a trap, Jason carefully pried the phone open. The screen flashed with different symbols, but as they started scrolling across the screen, Jason saw the symbols were in five different colours. They looked familiar, though. Memories stirred, and something tugged at the back of his brain. A second of realisation later, and he remembered where he'd seen them before.

They were Japanese.

"Zac, do you recognise these?" Jason asked, and tapped the screen.

"No."

"You should," Jason continued. "This red symbol is the Japanese kanji symbol for fire. It's Jayden, Jayden Shiba. Don't you remember? Ten years ago, I had that student who was being chased by Japanese underworld demons. I taught him some karate, and then we fought those fish demons and destroyed the mountain troll."

Zac's face lit up. "That's right! There in front of the Park Hotel!" he shouted. He caught himself and glanced over to Ernie. Luckily, Ernie didn't seem to have heard him. "I totally remember that."

"Jayden would be twenty-one this year," Jason said. "The ages kind of match up."

"Where there's one of these, there's usually four or five more," Zac said, tapping the morpher in Jason's hand. "So Jayden grew up to become a Ranger? You think maybe the demons finally caught up to him?"

Jason shrugged. "I don't know," he replied. "And the only person who does can't help us right now," and he turned back to Trini and Ernie, still tending to the injured boy. But as he watched them, the boy's words replayed in his mind. Jason couldn't help but feel a chill at the desperate fear in the boy's voice.

_Jayden's in trouble_.

* * *

With a soft murmur, Mike's eyes fluttered open. Still groggy, he could hear birds singing, and loud voices several rooms away. Somewhere nearby, a radio was playing the top forty. He suddenly realised that he was lying on a soft mattress, his head against a pillow. He looked around wildly, the events of the last few days catching up to him in a rush. Where was he? Whose house was this? He had no idea. Throwing the blankets off, he sat up and looked around…

…which is when the pain kicked in. He clutched at his head, groaned, and sank back down to the pillow. Being vertical would have to wait.

"Hey," came a voice, and Mike glanced over to where Jason was sitting by the door. Seeing Mike awake, Jason stood up and carried the chair over. "It's okay," Jason continued. "You're safe. You're in my house. Actually you're in my spare bedroom. How do you feel?"

Mike shut his eyes. For the first time, he realised that his whole body was hurting. "Not good," the Green Samurai Ranger murmured. "Really, really not good."

"You were in worse shape last night, trust me," Jason replied.

"You guys fixed me up?" Mike asked. He opened his eyes and propped himself up at least halfway vertical. Jason was sitting a few feet away, concern etched onto his features.

"One of our friends is a nurse who's used to dealing with strange injuries," Jason replied. "We took you to the hospital, got you patched up, and then brought you back here to keep you safe. We figured something was chasing you."

Mike's face fell. "You kept watch?" he asked softly. "Whoa. Um, thank you. I'm Mike, by the way."

"Jason. Jason Scott."

"Jayden's old karate teacher," Mike said. Then his eyes flew wide. "Jayden! Oh God, Jayden! He needs our help, we have to go!" He tried getting up, whether his body was going to let him or not. But Jason leaned forward and put two strong hands on Mike's shoulders, keeping him still.

"It's okay, calm down," Jason said. "Take a breath and talk slowly. Tell me everything. You're safe here."

Mike nodded and sat back. "Jayden's our leader," he explained. "He's the…"

"Red Ranger?" Jason asked. At Mike's expression, Jason reached into his pocket. "It's okay, we found this on you," and he threw Mike's morpher back towards him. Mike caught it, and Jason nodded to Mike's green shirt. "I'm guessing you're green? It's okay. You can trust me."

Holding the morpher close, Mike looked back to Jason as if seeing him for the first time. There was something in the man's voice that told him he was safe. A tone Mike couldn't quite pick up on. But Jason and his friends had already protected Mike once, even before they knew anything about him. He felt like he could trust him, even if he didn't quite understand why.

"Jayden and Ji have this house in Panorama City," Mike continued. "It's a nice place. The six of us were all living and training there while we protected the city and fought the demons."

"The Yokai?" Jason asked, recalling the battle all those years ago.

"No, the Nighlok," Mike replied. "New breed, same ugly." Jason smiled, and Mike continued. "They feed on fear and despair. The house is protected, I mean, I thought it was. The Nighlok aren't supposed to be able to appear on the property. But a couple of nights ago, I woke up, and they were there in the house! I don't know how they got in, but they were everywhere. The house was burning and I couldn't see anyone. Jayden saved me."

Jason leaned forward. "What happened?" he asked.

"There were too many," Mike continued. "We couldn't fight them all off. Jayden gave me the card for the Youth Centre and told me to find you. He held them off just to buy me time to escape. I made it out to the street and up the hill. When I looked back, they were crawling all over the house, but then they just vanished." He paused, and Jason could see he was fighting the tears that were threatening to overwhelm him. "They just disappeared into thin air. I didn't know what to do, so I did what Jayden told me, I kept running until I found you."

"Do you know where your friends could be?" Jason asked.

"No clue," Mike replied. "I just don't know." With that, he sat up again. The pounding in his head subsided quickly this time. "Look, thanks for patching me up, but I found you, right? So we gotta go back. We have to return to Panorama City. I don't know why he sent me to find his old karate teacher, but that's the thing about Jayden. He knows what he's doing. Do you know why he sent me here?"

"I helped him out with something once before," Jason said, and stood up. "You're still woozy. I'll come back with you, I promise. We will find Jayden. But right now, I need you to stay put."

"Where are you going?" Mike asked.

Jason turned to him. "To round up the cavalry," he said, and stepped out of the room.

* * *

Jason jogged down the stairs and stepped into the living room. The other five Rangers were sitting on the couch or at the kitchen counter, but seeing Jason appear, everyone stood up. Zac and Tommy had stayed overnight on guard duty, while the others had come first thing in the morning. Ryan was lying on a blanket in the corner, playing happily with a plush Blue Ranger toy.

"How is he?" Trini asked. "Is he okay?"

"He's a lot better," Jason replied.

"So what did he say?" Zac asked. "Who is he?"

"He is Mike, the Green Samurai Ranger," Jason replied. As quickly as he could, he relayed on everything that Mike had told him. "So I'm gonna go put some things in a backpack and get moving."

"Good," Zac said. "Then we're coming too."

"Yeah, you're not leaving us behind," Kimberly added.

Jason smiled. "I didn't even ask," he said.

"After all these years," Trini said, "you should've realised you don't have to."

"If you're getting the band back together?" Tommy said. "We're coming."

Jason turned to Billy and Trini. "What about Ryan?"

"My parents would be happy to take care of him for a couple of days," Trini said. "I think they're missing him."

"Do we have any other allies we can call upon for assistance?" Billy asked.

"I don't think so," Jason said. "Everyone is either off-planet, in another dimension or out-of-range. I don't want to turn up with anything short of an army, but there's nobody within reach who could get here fast enough."

"Yeah," came a voice, and everyone turned to see Mike standing by the foot of the stairs, leaning on the railing to keep his balance. "And time is something Jayden and the others don't have," Mike continued.

Jason nodded. "So grab what you need and meet me back here in an hour."

* * *

"Here's the nappy bag," Trini said, handing the bag to her father as Billy carefully gave Ryan to Mrs Kwan, the family standing on the yard of Trini's old house. "His favourite toys are the little Blue Ranger and the squeaky tiger," Trini continued. "He's been sleeping a lot lately, so he shouldn't give you too much trouble."

"Thanks again Mr and Mrs Kwan," Billy said. "We'll owe you."

"Think nothing of it," Mrs Kwan said. "We get to spend more time with our first grandson and spoil him rotten, so that should more than make up for it." She looked up. "Don't give me that look, you two. That's what grandchildren are for."

Mr Kwan stepped forward. "We always figured you'd need to go," and he took a few seconds to choose his next word carefully, "_adventuring_ again at some point in the future. How long do you think you'll be?"

Trini shrugged. "It could be an hour, it could be a couple of days," she replied. "We tend to play these things by ear."

"We'll call either way," Billy said. "Suffice to say, I doubt this will be a regular occurrence."

"Just come back to us safely," Mr Kwan said. "That's all we ask."

Mrs Kwan frowned. "Hold on, though. Will Ryan be safe here?" she asked. "With us, I mean?"

"Trust us," Trini replied. "Our son has friends in high places."

"Affirmative," Billy added. "We've never said anything, but there are various systems in place protecting him. In layman's terms? While he's here, this house is the safest building in the city, and possibly on the planet."

The Kwans shared a glance, but nodded. Trini stepped forward to hug them both, before Billy joined her to kiss Ryan on the forehead.

"Thanks," Trini said, but just as they were about to step away, she turned back. "And if anyone from the future shows up, call us, and don't let them in."

With that, Billy and Trini headed back to the car. "Will it be okay?" Billy asked nervously, fumbling in his pocket for the keys. "We've never been away this long."

Trini glanced to her parents who waved. "He's in good hands," she said.

"No, I know Ryan will be perfectly safe," Billy replied. "I'm more concerned about us."

* * *

Stepping onto the patio of Tommy's house, Kimberly wrapped her knuckles against the door.

"Come in!" Tommy's voice echoed from somewhere inside. "It's open! I just finished packing."

Making her way inside, Kimberly dropped her backpack by the door and followed the corridor around to Tommy's room. The little wall safe by the bed was open, and inside on a felt mat were two golden coins. Tommy was standing in front of them with his hand on the wall, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. His expression was unreadable.

"Spoiled for choice?" Kim asked softly.

"White or green, what do you think?"

Kimberly pointed to the Dragonzord coin. "I haven't seen this in a while."

"Yeah, it's been buried at the bottom of the safe here," Tommy replied.

"You're thinking about the Green Ranger for one last time?"

Tommy shrugged. "Trini said that with luck, the demons will remember us from ten years ago. They never met the White Ranger. Plus if we need power, we'll have the Dragon Shield. And if we are going old-school, I think Dragonzord could use some exercise. I know we don't keep him underwater anymore, but he gets lonely."

Kimberly smiled. "And you'll be okay, like, power-wise?"

"Alpha said the Dragonzord coin is all charged up," Tommy replied. "I'll have enough for a couple of weeks, maybe more." With his mind made up, he reached out for the Dragonzord coin, but Kim couldn't help noticing a second of hesitation as he held his hand over the coin. Finally, he grabbed it, jammed it into his pocket and shut the safe.

"We should go," the Green Ranger said. But as they turned and left, Tommy turned to the Pink Ranger and lowered his voice. "Thank you," he murmured.

"You're welcome."

* * *

Mike was sitting at the kitchen counter when Jason jogged back downstairs and dropped a large red backpack by the couch.

"You're looking better," Jason said.

"I'm feeling better, thanks," Mike said. Glancing to the clock over the fridge, he tapped the counter. "We gotta go already. Where are your friends?"

"They'll be here," Jason said. "I promise."

"You're out of ice-cream, by the way."

Jason smiled. "You and Zac have a lot in common," he said. With that the door opened, and the five other Rangers stepped into the house. Zac locked the door behind him, and Jason turned to the group. "Everything's all good?" he asked.

"I got the girls to cover for me at work," Kimberly said. "Tommy's between jobs right now…"

"And the rest of us," Zac continued, "all had overdue holiday time."

"What about Ryan?" Jason asked.

"He's with my parents," Trini nodded. "He'll be fine. Don't worry."

"Wait," Mike said, climbing to his feet. "Hang on a second. This is it? Just the six of you? Jayden's old karate teacher and his five besties?"

Zac clutched his chest dramatically. "Ouch."

"We're only about ten years older than you," Kim said. "You think we're not up for this?"

Suddenly finding himself the focus of six bemused gazes, Mike shrank back. "No, no, not at all! Well maybe a little," he admitted. "It's just the demons are pretty scary, you know? You guys should know what you're getting into."

Trini smiled. "You'll just have to trust us that we've done this once or twice before," she said.

"It's your funeral," Mike said. "But if Jayden trusts you, that's good enough for me."

Jason looked around. "So everyone ready?"

They all raised their wrists. For the first time, Mike noticed the wrist-bands everybody was wearing.

"Off to save the Universe again," Kimberly said brightly.

"Mike, hold onto Tommy," Jason said. "Whatever happens, do not let go."

Tommy reached over and took Mike's hand as Mike laughed in puzzlement. "Um, sure," the younger Green Ranger said.

"Rangers," Jason called. "Let's go!" and everyone reached for their wrists.

Mike's expression fell, and he glanced around the group. "Wait a second," he said, "hang on…"

But he never got the chance to finish, because a second later, the assembled heroes disappeared from the house in seven bright flashes of light.

_To be continued_.


	4. Chapter 3

_Author's notes - Thanks for the reviews everybody :). jg13145, quite possibly, but the gap between chapters two and three is the point where Mike realises just who Jayden sent him to get. Dguice - thanks for your comments! What I like about Mike is that there's a real emotional honesty to the character. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and what you see is what you get. And it was really fun to write him. I gave Mike his own personal journey through these first few chapters, as he watches the original team in action, and you can see that although he's skeptical to start with, you can see it slowly sliding. Anyway, into chapter 3!  
_

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Farms, fields and cities flashed beneath them. Seconds later, the seven Rangers shot down towards Panorama City, soon materialising on the grounds of the Shiba family mansion. Jason glanced around quickly to see if everybody had made it, knowing that most of the group weren't teleporting as frequently as they used to, when Mike staggered away from the group clutching at his head.

"Mike, are you okay?" Trini asked.

Catching his breath, the Green Samurai Ranger turned to face the team, his eyes wide with wonder. "You guys are the real deal," Mike murmured. "I didn't think it was true. I wondered why Jayden had sent me to find you. But you're the first ever team of Power Rangers!"

He ran back towards the group, his eyes glancing from Ranger to Ranger and the six different colours they were all wearing. "You're the Red Ranger!" he said, pointing at Jason. "And you're yellow, and blue, and pink, and black, and… green," but his voice trailed off as he stopped and stared at Tommy. "You're the first Green Ranger."

There was a moment of awkward silence as the Rangers all looked to each other.

Tommy lowered his head. "I started off evil and, yes, it tended to happen a lot," he sighed. "We're just here to do a job, right? Let's focus."

"Right," Jason said, and he turned to the star-struck teenager before him. "So Mike, can you…?"

But Mike's attention had drifted away from them, and the team followed his gaze and looked around. Everyone suddenly realised where they'd landed, in the burnt-out remains of what had once been a large house. There was no roof over their heads, and a carpet of charred wreckage crunched under their shoes. On every side, the walls had been burned and destroyed. Judging from the blackened countertop nearby, this was once the kitchen and living area. But barely anything remained to indicate what the room had once been used for. On the far side of the building, the house seemed more intact. The roof and walls looked to have survived the fire, but the building was still barely liveable.

Mike let out a gasp as his heart sank. He was speechless for a long time. "I didn't think it was this bad," he murmured. "I haven't seen the house since I left."

Trini reached over and rested a hand on his shoulder, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze. "Take deep breaths," she said. "It's okay."

"I'm sorry," Mike said. "I feel like such a rookie right now."

"Don't sweat it," said Zac.

Billy nodded. "Indeed," the Blue Ranger added. "We lost our Command Centre several times. Things can always be rebuilt. The important part is that you're safe, and we have the opportunity to locate your missing team-mates."

With that, he and Trini stepped over to the counter and swept the wreckage off the bench top. Trini placed a bag of tools on the counter and unrolled it, while beside her, Billy pulled his laptop free of its case and switched it on.

"So," Billy began. "If you could describe to us exactly what happened."

"I already told Jason everything," Mike said. "I just don't know what happened. I woke up and the demons were everywhere. That shouldn't be possible. You guys probably remember, Nighlok emerge from the gaps between solid objects like buildings or cars or whatever. The whole city is wired with gap sensors."

"Like an early warning system?" Tommy asked.

"Exactly," Mike said. "There's more of them in this neighbourhood than the rest of the city. Plus, there are symbol power protections around the house. The Nighlok can't physically appear through the gaps, they just can't." He sighed, and kicked a stone in frustration. "I'm sorry. I've told you nothin'."

Billy leaned against the counter. "On the contrary," he began, "you've told us everything. The demons obviously breached the house by doing something new, something they hadn't tried before, that both your mentor and the Shiba family couldn't possibly have predicted. That's an excellent start. Are your friends likely being held in the netherworld, do you suspect?"

"I don't think so," Mike replied. "It's the river of the dead. Nothing alive can exist there, not for long."

"Then operating on the assumption that your friends are still alive," Billy said, "they physically have to exist _somewhere_. Everything leaves a trail, magic or science. Once we know what the Nighlok did…"

"We can track it backwards to the source!" Kim said excitedly. "Look at me. Ten years, and I finally understand Billy."

"Billy and Trini, put on the lab coats and go to work," Jason began. "Everyone else, spread out. Look for anything strange or out-of-place. Maybe there's something here that can help us."

As Mike watched, the group split up. Across the house, Tommy approached a burnt chest of drawers, and began opening the drawers one-by-one.

Kimberly stepped past him. "Looks like you've got a fan," she said.

"Looks like it," Tommy replied grimly.

In the kitchen, Mike watched as Billy put on a pair of glasses adorned with wires and blinking diodes and gazed slowly around the ruins. A few feet away, Trini was staring at the screen of a small black object the size of a phone. She pulled an antenna free, tapped the device, then frowned. "Nothing," she said. "I'm gonna try infra-red."

"Good idea," said Billy. "Make sure to…"

"Recalibrate the spectrometer?" Trini replied. "Done."

"It's like CSI in the thirtieth century," Mike murmured. Beside him, Zac grinned, and Mike shrugged. "I watch a lot of cop shows."

"Trust me, the bells and whistles are worth it," Zac said. "This isn't always about giant monsters eating downtown. When the bad guys get subtle, that's bad news for everybody."

Suddenly, Tommy raised his voice. "Hey guys, I got something!" he shouted.

Zac and Mike quickly followed Billy and Trini around to where Tommy, Jason and Kim were standing in the burnt-out living room. As they approached, Tommy pointed to the mantle above the fireplace. The burned remains of what looked like a stuffed toy were sitting on the shelf. But the coat had burned away in the fire, revealing what looked like a small antenna attached to circuitry.

"That doesn't belong there," Tommy said, and reached for the toy.

"No!" Trini shouted. "Don't touch it." Everybody immediately backed away as Billy and Trini stepped closer. "I'll get the…"

"Spectrometer," Billy finished, and he pulled it free of his pocket and held it up. As he waved it closer to the mantle, the device began beeping. Over the remains of the teddy bear, the device began emitting a rapid, high-pitched tone, but as he pulled it away, the device fell silent.

"Is that it?" Kim asked.

"It's emitting some kind of radiation, that's for certain," Billy said.

"Mike, where'd you get this from?" Tommy asked.

"The carnival," Mike replied. "After we stopped Serrator, Ji gave us the night off, so we all went to this carnival on the other side of town. There was this games tent, and we won the bear. I can't even remember who won the damn thing. It might've been Kevin, or maybe Antonio gave it to Jayden, I don't remember. It might've even been me."

"Don't blame yourself," Jason said quickly, resting a hand on Mike's shoulder. "However this thing got here, it wasn't your fault."

"Totally," Kimberly nodded. "Rita and Zedd used to stage entire fairs as traps for us. Zac once bought a pair of pearl earrings off a homeless guy in the park that was actually a putty in disguise."

"They looked real," Zac bristled. "The point is, it's hard to stop this some days."

"But I don't get it," Mike said. "If the Nighlok planted this as a trap, shouldn't it have triggered the house defences when we brought it in?"

"Not necessarily," said Billy, wearing the giant blinking glasses again. "This might not be human in origin, but it looks like simple circuitry. There's no magic here at all. Any spells protecting the house wouldn't have recognised it as anything more than computer parts. When, in fact, it was a great deal more. Trini, could you…?" But Trini was already passing him an electronic magnifying glass. Leaning in close, the Blue Ranger carefully inspected the burnt circuitry. "Fascinating."

"Bill, you're gonna have to talk to us," Tommy said.

"Right, apologies," the Blue Ranger said. But they could all see that the sharpest mind any of them had known was ticking. He'd found something. "See this part here?" Billy continued, pointing to the antenna. "This wasn't just broadcasting, it was receiving. Extrapolating from Michael's explanation of the house's security measures, I'd suggest this was the key. It received a signal from wherever the demons were, and opened a portal directly into the living room. So they could step through and bypass the house's protections entirely." He glanced around the group. "That's how they got in."

"That's it?" Mike asked. "A simple trick?"

"Magic, particularly old magic, is often full of unintentional loopholes," Trini explained. "We've benefited from those more than once."

"It's bitten us in the butt a few times too," Zac added darkly.

"I'm guessing the original spell was worded very carefully," Trini continued. "Jayden's ancestors may not have realised they'd ever need to worry about technological intrusion. So they didn't put any safeguards in place to block it."

"That does make sense," Mike said. "I know the house has been in the Shiba family for generations. And the Nighlok are usually pretty old-school. Serrator's the only one who ever cared about modern technology."

"And the magical protections couldn't determine what was actually happening inside the house," Billy said, "so they didn't stop it. Of course..."

"Portals lead somewhere," Trini finished quickly. "Even if the demons made it inside, the house protections would've still stopped them from using the gaps. So they would've _had_ to have used the portal to leave again. If we can figure out how it worked, we can see where it led."

Mike glanced warily between the two Rangers. "If you say so."

"Give us some time," Billy said. "We haven't done this in a considerable while."

"We'll keep looking around," Jason said. "Maybe there's something else we can use?" Zac, Kimberly and Tommy stepped away, exploring the burned ruins of the Shiba mansion as Billy and Trini got to work behind them. But as his friends spread out through the house, Jason turned to see Mike sitting on the grass in the yard, gazing at the dirt. Walking over, Jason sat down beside him.

"It won't be long now," he said.

"I didn't understand, like, half of what they said," Mike admitted.

"Welcome to our world," Jason smiled.

"Still, this is taking too long," Mike said. "It's been days since the Nighlok took them. Anything could've happened."

Jason had seen this dozens of times before. Mike was thinking of worst case scenarios. It was a great strategy when confronting dangerous situations, but the worst thing imaginable when you were sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone to come home. He knew he had to distract Mike before he got lost in his own thoughts.

"So this was your place?" Jason asked.

Mike seemed taken aback by the question, and glanced around the remains of the garden. "Yeah," he said. "It looked better last week though."

"And you all lived here together? I bet that was tough."

"It was at first," Mike said. "You know, you leave your home and move in with a bunch of strangers. I used to get out of line all the time. But we figured it out and made it work. We fought evil and kicked butt. We were good at it, too."

Jason nodded. "Tell me about your friends."

Mike looked back to the grass. "Kevin is the Blue Ranger," he began. "He's so uptight and strict. But he knows his stuff. He's always so dedicated. Don't tell him, but sometimes, I wish I was a little bit more like him. Antonio was Jayden's oldest friend. They just kind of get each other. Jayden is a different person around him, it's so strange."

"I remember Ji telling me about Antonio," Jason said. "I'm glad they found each other again."

"He's smart too," Mike continued. "He built his own morpher. Mia is our Pink Ranger, and she's sweet. She really knows how to take care of us, cooking notwithstanding. And then there's Emily. Emily's yellow, and she's…"

"Yeah?"

"Emily's just special."

Jason smiled, hearing the tone in Mike's voice. "What about Jayden?"

"He's the best guy," Mike said. "You know, you actually remind me a lot of him. He talks about you all the time. This amazing karate teacher he had when he was ten."

"I wondered about him," Jason said. "I hoped he was doing okay, and that he'd found some friends and settled down."

"The funny thing is, he mentioned once that he'd run into a team of Power Rangers when he was a kid," Mike said. "But I never figured out he was talking about you guys. I actually remember saying to him that I bet it was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. And Jayden told me that seeing the Rangers flash down out of the sky like lightning showed him that the Power Rangers can do anything."

Behind them, Kimberly stepped onto the deck. "Hey guys, I think I found something you'll want to see," she said, and ducked back inside.

Jason went to stand up, but Mike grabbed his arm. "Can you?" he asked. "Can you find my friends?"

Jason saw the look in Mike's eyes, and his heart went out to the younger Ranger. "I think we can," he said. "As impossible as it sounds, I think we can. And I promise you that none of us will stop searching until we do. Now c'mon, it sounds like we've got another lead."

Following Kim, Jason and Mike headed around to the back of the house, towards one of the few rooms that still appeared to be structurally sound.

"Whoa, wait a minute," Mike said suddenly. "This is Ji's space. We never come back here."

"I think he'll forgive you," Jason said. "Kim, what did you find?"

"Check this out," Kim said. Stepping into the room, she pointed to the wall opposite. Facing them from across the room was a floor-to-ceiling mahogany bookcase. Towering over them, the shelves were full to bursting with leather-bound books and journals, all of them looking impossibly ancient and fragile. But while the ceiling and walls were all damaged thanks to the fire, the bookcase was unharmed. Even the floor and walls immediately around it had no damage at all. Jason and Mike froze in wonder. It didn't seem possible that the books had survived the assault while the rest of the house had been reduced to rubble.

"Those are Ji's books," Mike said, and dashed forward.

"Wait!" Kim shouted. But it was too late. Mike slammed into a glowing barrier and bounced back away. Kimberly caught him as he staggered back. "Easy sailor," she said. "Is that symbol power?"

Mike looked back to the forcefield, and tapped it gently with his fingers. "I'd say so," he replied. "Ji must've wanted to protect the Shiba family journals. I suppose it activated automatically when it detected smoke?"

"He almost lost the entire collection in a fire ten years ago," Jason said. "Can you undo it?"

"Easy," Mike grinned. Pulling his Samurai morpher free, he flipped the phone open, pointed it at the wall and drew a symbol in the air. "Unlock," Mike murmured. The air shimmered and the forcefield faded away. The three Rangers stepped forward, each one reaching for one of the journals and carefully turning through the pages. Most were filled with pictures, and while some of the text was written in English, most of it was in Japanese.

Kim turned to Jason. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

"I'm hoping we can at least find out what we're up against," Jason replied. "See if Mike recognises any of the pictures."

But even as Jason flipped through the pages, Mike glanced over and suddenly dropped the book he'd been holding. "Stop!" he shouted. Jason froze, and Mike took the book in Jason's hands and turned it back several pages. "There!" he said, pointing to pictures of a pair of fearsome demons. "That's them! That's the armour they were wearing, I'm sure of it. Those are the Nighlok who attacked the house!"

Jason took the book back. The text under the pictures was all written in ancient, faded Japanese, and he was about to ask Mike whether he could translate it when his face fell. Even as he watched, the symbols rearranged themselves on the page to form perfect, crisp English. "Whoa," he murmured.

"What is it?" asked Kim.

"Nothing," Jason said. "The demons, their names are Kaji and Kori. The dragon and the wolf. It says here that they're called the Tenki brothers, a pair of mercenaries who possess elemental powers. One has fire, the other has ice. They have no set loyalties to anyone in the netherworld other than each other. But they're two of the oldest and most dangerous Nighlok. Even Xandred avoids them if he can help it. According to this, they're just too uncontrollable."

Kimberly took the journal from Jason. "Their end goal has always been total domination," she read. "Kaji desires to rule the Earth, while Kori longs to make the netherworld his own. If Kori is the demon of ice, then he literally wants hell to freeze over. They sound like nice guys," but she paused, and chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Is it me, though, or do they not sound organised enough to be running this by themselves? Would they be working with Xandred?"

"Doubt it," Mike said. "The last we saw of Xandred, he was petrified. Jayden said it'd be a while before we saw him again. I'm hopin' we never do."

"If Xandred is out of the picture," Jason began, "it explains why they're making their play now. Still, I see what Kim's saying. They definitely sound like they'd be working for someone else. Let's at least go tell everyone what we found."

Heading back into the remains of the living room, Jason, Kimberly and Mike found Zac and Tommy peering over Billy and Trini's shoulders at Billy's laptop. Mike had just told them all what they'd learned about the Tenki brothers when Billy's computer beeped. Jason couldn't help but notice the corners of Billy's mouth curl upwards into a smile.

"Did you find 'em?" Mike asked quickly.

"Affirmative," Billy replied, and pointed to the screen. "The portal that opened up within the house had a very unique heat signature, not detectable by standard methods of surveillance. By expanding the search parameters and utilising the satellite grid, we…" But Billy noticed the blank looks on everybody's faces and blushed. "Um, Trini?"

Trini smiled and spun the laptop around. "We found where the portal opened," she said. "It's somewhere deep in the mountains outside Panorama City."

"Now that I think about it," Mike began, "there's this old fortress out there in the woods. Like, medieval old. It's so remote, hikers generally avoid it."

"Got it," Zac said. Everyone turned to see he'd unrolled a map of the area on the ground behind them. "It's called Castle Inabikari. It's an old historical fort."

"Way to go," Tommy said. "That'll be where our badguys are. If we're lucky, we'll find the Samurai Rangers there too."

Billy and Trini switched off the laptop and stashed all their other devices safely away in their luggage.

"So what are we waiting for?" Mike asked. "Let's roll!"

"Not yet," Billy said, and turned to Mike. "Just something I've been considering for the last hour or so. If we run into trouble, we may become separated. Our communication network was always tremendously vital. I suspect we'd be at a serious disadvantage heading into battle without it. Can I borrow your samurai morpher for a minute?"

Mike reached into his pocket and handed it over. "Sure."

Tommy leaned in close as the Blue Ranger inspected the device. "What are you thinking Bill?" Tommy asked.

Billy unclasped his communicator and laid it flat on the bench top. "I believe that with a few minor adjustments, I can tune our communicators into the frequency of Michael's samurai morpher, thusly allowing us instantaneous communication between teams."

Mike laughed and shook his head. "Oh come on, you're just making words up now," he said, as Billy unscrewed the back of the communicator and began tinkering with the wiring inside. "There are mystical protections on our morphers. After Jayden gave them to us, Ji told us they were unhackable. When Antonio showed up, he spent a couple of days making them even safer, so there's no way you'd be able to…"

But even as he protested, Billy hit the top button on the communicator, and the samurai phone beeped a familiar six-note chime.

Mike fell silent, his jaw hanging open. He glanced from Billy to the phone and then back again. Nobody spoke, although behind him, Trini and Zac were both fighting losing battles not to break into broad grins.

"You guys are full of surprises, you know that?" Mike said, and stashed the phone back into his pocket.

"At least we have a place to start," Jason began. "But Mike, this could be a dead-end, or we could end up running into serious trouble. Are you sure you're okay?"

"You couldn't keep me here if you tried," Mike said.

Jason smiled, and the six Rangers raised their communicators. Mike automatically reached for Tommy's shoulder. "Okay," Jason said. "Jayden, hang on buddy. Help's on the way," and they pressed the wrist devices and vanished from the scene.

_To be continued._


	5. Chapter 4

_Author's notes - hey everyone. This is the chapter where things start exploding :). PinkRanger13 - given that this is a it's-continuity-but-not-as-you-know-it situation (since, in the show, the age difference between the two teams would be greater than 5-to-10 years), I've intentionally kept it vague, in terms of Tommy's powers. Tommy's personal journey only ever touches on the Green and White Ranger powers (remember how Mike was stunned speechless in chapter 3 at meeting the original Green Ranger?). Jg13145 - like I said, I lean more towards action and adventure, but if you look closely, you'll see the Samurai relationships happening in the background. Anyway, into the next chapter. There's plenty of little moments here I think you'll all enjoy :). _

* * *

**Chapter Four**

The seven Rangers touched down in a grassy field in the shadow of a towering mountain several kilometres away. As they gained their bearings and looked around, they saw thick forest facing them, with a narrow trail nearby leading deeper into the shadowy trees and then disappearing from view. In the distance, they could see a stone tower rising above the forest canopy. But apart from the wind through the trees, there was no noise, no animal calls or bird cries, and the Rangers felt the hair on the backs of their necks standing on end. It was far too quiet.

Kimberly glanced to her friends. "So," she began. "The woods have definitely gotten creepier."

"This was the closest we could arrive without alerting them to our presence," Billy said. "We'll have to approach on foot from here on in."

Everybody nodded. But as they stepped into the trees, Mike reached up to put his hand on a tree trunk, and his eyes flew wide. "Wait!" he shouted.

The Rangers froze. "What's wrong?" Tommy asked.

"Moogers!" Mike began. "We've been spotted! There's about fifty of them, heading this way!"

The Rangers were instantly all business, falling back-to-back around Mike with their arms raised, ready for battle as they scanned the terrain.

"Mike, where are they?" Trini asked. "I don't see anything."

"Neither do I," Jason added.

"No, they're not here," Mike replied, and pointed into the trees. "They're about a hundred feet that way. Can't you feel them coming? It's like the whole forest is shaking."

The older Rangers looked to each other and visibly relaxed, letting their arms fall.

"Jayden's element was fire," Jason said, and turned to Mike. "I'm guessing yours was the forest?"

Mike nodded. "It comes in handy sometimes."

"It sure does," Zac said. "Do you see any other paths?"

Mike shut his eyes and reached out for the tree trunk. "Yeah, I think so," he said, and pointed to the right. "A short distance that way. It's about twice as long and it's a narrower trail, but the Nighlok don't seem to know about it. I can't see them anywhere near it."

"Sounds good," Jason said. "Let's go."

* * *

In the shadowy corridors deep inside the fortress, the ancient Nighlok Kaji made his way down a twisting spiral staircase, his heavy footsteps echoing off the stone walls. Down below, the passage opened out into a huge hall, but as he stepped into the room, the walls started glowing red. He looked to the nearest doorway to see the space around the doorframe shining an unearthly crimson. As he watched, a shadowy figure took shape just beyond the light.

"Kaji!" the voice hissed. "Is that you? Where is your brother?"

Kaji leaned in close until his snout was in the doorway. "In my pocket where I keep him," he replied. "How should I know?"

"I'm not paying you for your petulance," the voice said archly. "A simple 'Not here' would've sufficed. How are our guests?"

Kaji smiled cruelly. "There have been several escape attempts," the demon replied. "All of which have been unsuccessful. We are yet to locate the forest whelp, but he won't remain out of our reach for long."

"And the Shiba boy?"

"We are keeping him separate as you so politely requested," Kaji said. "For the moment, he is causing no problems."

"Excellent."

The door at the opposite end of the hall breezed open, and the other half of the Tenki brothers strode into the room. The temperature in the hall plummeted immediately.

"My liege," Kori said coolly, "I felt your presence here, and just in time. My sentries have reported that others are coming. You promised we would not be disturbed."

There was a pause. "Others?" came the reply, with a tone of genuine puzzlement. "We have been found? How intriguing."

"My Moogers told me they saw a group appear in the valley beyond the forest," Kori continued. "The good news is the green one is with them."

Kaji jumped. "Ah! He's saving us the trouble of hunting him down," he twitched. "How thoughtful."

"I sent a legion to greet them," Kori continued, shooting his brother a look, "but they disappeared into the forest. We must assume they're headed this way."

The shadowy figure turned away from the Tenki brothers. "Yes," he said after a short minute. "Yes, I can see them through gaps in the trees and cracks in the stones. The Green Ranger has a group with him. I don't recognise them, but there seems to be six of them."

"That's an interesting number of companions," Kori frowned.

"Was I finished?" the shadowy figure asked irritably, looking back to the brothers. "Whoever they are, I can sense no symbol power in any of them. There is something there, though. Some kind of power that is unknown to me. Something old."

"What does it matter?" Kaji asked. "They will walk into our trap regardless."

"We must take no chances. Kaji, go and guard the Shiba boy. Make sure none get to him. Kori…"

"I'll assemble the Moogers," Kori said. "We'll stop them before they get close."

"Yes," their master replied. "Capture the green one. Remember, we still have need of him. But his companions? They'll give you no trouble. _Annihilate them_."

* * *

Keeping out of sight, the Rangers crept through the forest until they reached the top of a gentle slope. Down below, the tangled trees gave way to a grassy field. About a hundred feet beyond lay a complex of ancient stone buildings. The structures were all covered in moss with thatched rooves, while several had collapsed into rubble long ago. Exposure to wind and rain had long since worn several towering statues down to unrecognisable slabs of rock. Behind the rest of the complex, a narrow tower reached for the sky, on a dangerous lean and likely to collapse at any second. Assembling on the field before them was an army of dozens of Moogers.

"Look at 'em," Mike murmured, peering out from behind a tree trunk. "You guys are right. This has to be where the Rangers are."

"The building to the far right has the highest concentration of troops surrounding it," Billy said. "Your team-mates will be in there."

Jason swept his gaze over the fortress, and his eyes narrowed. "Not all of them," he said, and pointed to the tower. "Check that out." The Rangers immediately spotted a defensive line of Moogers around the base of the building. "They're protecting something in there."

"Or someone," Tommy added.

"So it's a good old-fashioned raid on a castle then?" Kim asked.

"We haven't done this in a while," said Zac.

Trini nodded. "I don't think we have the time for subtle."

As they watched, a huge wooden door on the side of the largest building swung open, and the Nighlok demon Kori stepped outside with even more Moogers trailing after him. With every step he took, the grass underfoot froze and crumbled into brown ash.

"That's him!" Mike said. "That's the Nighlok that attacked Kevin and I."

Jason stood up. "Then we should go and say hello," he said.

The other Rangers joined him, their hearts pounding in their chests. Zac couldn't help but grin. "Call it captain," he said.

Jason glanced to Zac. "I'm not gonna lie," he said. "I've missed this," and everybody reached for their back pocket. "It's morphin' time!"

"Go go Samurai!"

"Dragonzord!"

"Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Sabre-Toothed Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

The storm of light faded, and the seven Power Rangers stood in a line overlooking the ancient castle. Down below, the army of Nighlok foot-soldiers spun towards the disturbance. Instantly recognising their foes, the army stepped towards them. A dozen of the troops broke away from the group, raised their blades and charged. Jason turned to Mike.

"You up for this?" the Red Ranger asked.

"Absolutely," Mike said. Reaching for his sword, he summoned his forest spear in a flash of light.

"Then go on ahead," Jason said. "Clear the road for us."

Behind his helmet, the Green Samurai Ranger frowned. "But if I take out all the Moogers, they'll think you're weak," he said. "They'll think you're easy targets."

"Yeah, they will," Jason replied. "It's something Rita and Zedd used to do all the time. It helped us win so many battles and they never even realised it."

"What?" Mike asked. "What did they used to do?"

"Underestimate us."

Mike smiled. Raising his staff, he charged down the hill towards the approaching Moogers. Reaching the field, he took to the air, somersaulting over their heads and dropping into the midst of the group, swinging his spear and immediately taking several to the ground. The demons attacked, two of them carving their blades for him, but he blocked the swords with his staff and forced them back, before a wide swing sent them crashing. Even as they fell, another Mooger raced forward. Mike heard the creature approach and stepped around the descending blade. When the demon slashed again, Mike blocked the creature's arm and struck him back with his spear, turning back to the crowd as the remaining Moogers closed in.

Half a dozen of them fell on him at once. Mike dropped low, holding his spear high and keeping their swords at bay. Jumping up, he struck the weapons away, smashing two of them back with a wild swing before planting the spear and taking to the air, slamming his boots into two more opponents and launching them off their feet. He found his footing as the remaining Nighlok closed in, and with the spear flashing through the air like nothing so much as solid lightning, he struck the demons away then slashed the spear towards the demons still standing. In a flash of green light, the Moogers were blasted back away and crashed to the ground.

Catching his breath, Mike looked back to the castle complex as the other Rangers joined him. Across the field, Kori stepped past the crowd of Moogers and gazed along the line of opponents.

"This is the great rescue?" Kori asked in disbelief. "Six retired Rangers and their kid brother? Pathetic! Your last great stand, and the world won't even see you fall! This ancient Nighlok fortress has stood for generations! You will crash against it and break like waves against the…"

There was an explosion of sparks and fire as Kori was blasted off his feet and slammed back through a wall of the nearest building. The roof collapsed in around him, and the Rangers lost sight of the demon as he was buried under a pile of rubble and debris.

Tommy resheathed the Dragon Dagger. "Is it just me or are they a lot chattier than they used to be?" he asked.

"So what's the plan?" Mike asked, raising his spear as the army closed in.

"Mike, go get your friends," Jason said. "Tommy, cover him. Guys, deal with the army. I'll go and find Jayden."

"We don't know what's in that tower," Trini warned. "It could be dangerous."

"If they've hurt Jayden," the Red Ranger replied darkly, "it will be. Ten years ago, these things were afraid of us. Let's remind them why."

"Right!"

With that, the seven Rangers charged forward to meet the wall of approaching enemies.

Jason took to the air, leaping over a line of Moogers, rolling to his feet and kicking high, sending one of the demons crashing. He caught a blow from the right and spun the demon off its feet, throwing the beast into several more and taking them all to the ground. Moving forward with every step, he continued fending off blows from his opponents, catching a punch from the left, striking away a demon on the right, before an elbow to the jaw took the first Nighlok to the ground. A sword flashed towards him, and he caught the blade in his glove, before a powerful uppercut lifted the Mooger off its feet. Without slowing down, Jason continued on a steady path straight towards the tower.

Behind him, Trini and Billy had been forced back-to-back by the wall of opponents. Glancing over their shoulders, the Rangers nodded and charged forward. Billy blocked a punch and threw the Mooger back away from him, taking out several who were closing in on Trini. He ducked as a Mooger slashed its blade for his head, spinning low and taking the creature's legs out from under it with a wide foot sweep. Beside him, the Yellow Ranger struck a Mooger away with a rapid chop, grabbing a second and throwing it away before a jump kick sent a third flying backwards.

A few metres away, Kimberly dived forward as the demons sliced their blades towards her, leaping to her feet and launching an opponent away with a high kick. Two of them attacked at once, but the Pink Ranger stepped to the side, easily avoiding the swords before striking both opponents in the chest and sending them crashing. Beside her, Zac was powering through the crowd of the demons, leaving a trail of unconscious Nighlok behind him. He struck one back with a powerful right hook, bringing his elbow back into the face of another before a spin kick forced a third to retreat. He somersaulted to safety as another Nighlok slashed its blade for his chest – finding his footing, he charged forward, and a powerful punch lifted the beast off its feet.

Across the field, Mike was slowly but surely making his way towards the prison building, leaving broken and defeated Nighlok behind him with every step. He blocked a wild swing with his spear and sent the beast crashing with a jump kick, sweeping the weapon back to drop several more. He raced forward as a blade flashed towards his head, but a white-gloved hand reached out and caught the blade in a shower of sparks.

"Go!" Tommy shouted. "I got this! Your friends need you!"

Mike nodded and raced away. Approaching the door, he leaped into the air, kicking the door clean off its hinges and charging inside as the battle continued raging behind him.

* * *

Lying on a floor of cold stone with his hair matted against his face, Jayden felt himself drifting in and out of consciousness. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know where the other Rangers were, or even if they were still on Earth. And the only reason he knew he was still alive was that every part of him hurt. His wrist was sprained or broken, and feeling this woozy meant he'd lost a lot of blood. In the corridor beyond his cell lay his samurai morpher and spin sword. They were just out of reach, barely two metres away, but it may as well have been two kilometres.

From far away, he heard footsteps approaching his cell. His eyes fluttered open, and he was just about to ask which of the Tenki brothers was approaching when there was noise and commotion from somewhere down below. Wild shouts, cries of battle and the sounds of explosions filled the air.

It sounded like a war was going on outside.

Curious, he reached for the door, and used what little strength he had left to haul himself up off the ground. He could feel heat, which meant Kaji was outside. But just as he was finding his voice to speak, the strangest sound echoed down the hallway.

His samurai phone was ringing.

Jayden glanced out the tiny window in the door, to see Kaji staring back at him. Both lost for words, they turned to the stone table holding the samurai morpher. It wasn't the usual ring-tone that Jayden had heard a hundred times before, but a strangely-familiar six-note chime. And then, a voice crackled out of the phone.

"Jayden? Jayden, are you there? Can you hear me?"

Jayden's brow furrowed. Who was that? Thinking back ten years, he suddenly remembered, and the corners of his mouth curled into a smile.

_Jason_.

"What is this?" Kaji twitched, recovering his surprise. "Who dares…?"

But the voice interrupted him. "Jayden, I don't know if you can hear this," Jason continued. "I hope you can. I hope you're okay. We hacked the samurai phone network. Mike did it. He found me." Jayden nodded, his mood visibly lightening. "I want you to know, your team is gonna be okay." The voice fell silent for a second, punctuated by the sound of an explosion somewhere down below. "Because I brought _my_ team. If you can hear me Jayden, hold on. Just, please, hold on for one more second. Help is on the way," and the morpher fell silent.

Kaji turned to the cell door as Jayden laughed softly. "Something amuses you?" the demon asked.

Jayden nodded, and fixed Kaji with a steely gaze that made the Sanzu water in Kaji's veins run cold. "You have no idea what's coming for you now," Jayden replied.

Kaji stepped back, but caught himself. "I'm touched by your concern," he said. "Any other words of advice?"

Jayden stood to his full height and leaned in close. "Just one," he said. "_Run_."

* * *

Sitting with her back against the wall, Emily looked around from within her barred cell as the sounds of battle began to reach inside the dungeon. Brushing tangled strands of blonde hair out of her eyes, she glanced along the line of neighbouring cells. The Rangers had been taking it in shifts to sleep. Mia and Antonio were quiet, but she couldn't see the Blue Ranger in his shadowy cage at the end of the corridor.

"Kevin?" she whispered.

"I'm here," came Kevin's voice. Emily sighed with relief as Kevin stepped forward out of the shadows.

"Can you hear that?" Emily asked. "Something's happening outside."

"It's probably just a training drill."

"No, it sounds like a war," Emily continued. "Mia! Antonio! Wake up!"

Tired yawns came from the other cells, as the Pink and Gold Samurai Rangers rolled over and opened their eyes.

"Emily?" Mia asked sleepily, climbing to her feet. "What's going on?"

A dozen Moogers raced past the cells, thundering down the corridor that led outside. The last one slammed the heavy wooden door shut behind him. Now wide awake, all four Rangers sat there in silence with baited breath. Sounds of frenzied combat began to filter down to them, a battle taking place on the other side of the wall. The sounds of fighting were soon joined by screeches and inhuman screams. A second later, the floor rumbled and the wall shook.

Without warning, the door was ripped off its hinges and thrown away. Daylight streamed into the dungeon. The Rangers blinked and shielded their eyes for a second, then looked back to see the Green Samurai Ranger standing framed in the doorway.

"Mike!" cried Emily.

"Oh gosh, Emily!" Mike replied. Without wasting another second, Mike raced over and tore the cell door off with his hands, throwing it away behind him. Emily leaped out of the cell and wrapped her arms around Mike, Mike gratefully returning the embrace. With his arms around her, Emily heard a sharp intake of breath under Mike's helmet, and realised he was crying.

"Mike!" Kevin shouted. "You got away!"

"I knew you'd come for us," Mia smiled.

Mike stepped away from Emily and over to a stone table a few feet away. A shimmering gold cage protected the Rangers' morphers and spin swords, but one strike from Mike's forest spear shattered it. "Are you guys okay?" Mike asked finally.

"We're fine," Emily said. "How'd you find us?"

"Em, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," Mike replied. With a flash of green, his forest spear disappeared, and he reholstered his spin sword. "Where's Ji?"

"Down the hall," Emily replied. "Where's Jayden? Did you rescue him first?"

"He's safe," Mike said. "Trust me. Get your sword and get everyone out of here. I'll go get Ji."

As Emily reclaimed her stolen spin sword, Mike dashed away. Around the corner, he came to a halt. At the back of the room was Ji in a cage all to himself. His copper-coloured samurai phone was sitting on a stone table nearby.

"Mike!" Ji shouted, and climbed to his feet. Mike ripped the bars of the cell open and helped the team's mentor escape, before handing Ji his phone. "Are the others okay?"

Mike nodded. "And Jason's gone after Jayden," he replied.

"Jason?" Ji repeated, then his face fell as he remembered. "Ah. Jason."

"C'mon," Mike said, and he led Ji out to where Emily had just finished freeing the remaining Samurai Rangers. "Okay guys," Mike continued, as everyone took back their morphers and weapons, "follow me."

With the rest of the team one step behind him, Mike led them up a flight of stairs and out through the gaping hole in the wall into daylight. Following after him, the Rangers gazed around the castle complex and their mouths fell open in astonishment. Buildings had been knocked over, several were on fire, and the defeated bodies of Moogers littered the ground everywhere they looked.

"Did you get everyone?" came a voice. The Samurai Rangers all turned to see a second Green Ranger approaching Mike. This one had a golden shield on his chest.

"All accounted for," Mike said.

"Good work," Tommy replied, and he raced over to where four other Rangers were just finishing off the rest of the Moogers.

"More Rangers?" asked Emily softly.

"Old friends of Jayden's, as it turns out," Mike said.

"They're not Samurai," Kevin murmured.

"No," Mike replied, then smiled. "They are something else."

The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers came back together in the middle of the field, and Tommy indicated the Samurai team. "Five out of six rescued," he said. "Now we just have to…"

The closest building exploded as Kori stormed out of the wreckage. "Two teams or thirty!" the Nighlok demon raged, visibly losing his cool. "You are insignificant!" And he raised his arms, his fists glowing blue.

"Guys!" Zac yelled. "Watch out!"

Kori sent a blast of energy whistling towards the Rangers, forcing the team to leap to safety. Rolling to her feet, Kimberly took to the air, but Kori blasted her out of the sky, the shock of cold forcing the breath from her lungs. Even as Kim fell, Zac and Tommy charged forward. Kori punched the air with his fists and sent more blasts crackling towards them. Tommy dodged one but wasn't fast enough to avoid a second, while Zac dived to safety behind some rubble. Hearing footsteps, Kori spun around as Billy and Trini closed in. He punched the air again, but the two Rangers were faster, easily stepping around the blasts without breaking stride. Before Kori could fire again, Billy leaped into the air with a high kick. Kori struck him away, but as caught off-guard as Trini sent him stumbling with a rapid blow to the jaw. He roared in frustration and blasted the Yellow Ranger back.

The team regrouped, and Kimberly helped Trini to her feet. "We need to take the fight to him," Trini said, and raised her hands. "Power Daggers!"

"Power Lance!"

"Power Bow!"

"Power Axe!"

"Dragon Dagger!"

In a flash of light, the Rangers were holding their Power Weapons. Kori uttered a canine growl and sent a volley of blasts whistling towards his opponents. The Rangers took to the air, but Zac stood his ground, striking away a blast with the flat of his axe before carving it straight for Kori's chest. The demon backed out of danger, but immediately came under attack as Billy's lance flashed towards him. The blow rattled the demon, but he recovered quickly. Striking the Blue Ranger away, he spun around as the Yellow and Green Rangers attacked. Ducking low under a slice from the Dragon Dagger, Kori blocked Tommy's arm and raked his claws for his opponent's helmet, forcing Tommy back. Kori lashed out for Trini but she backflipped out of danger, finding her footing and launching her daggers for Kori's chest. The demon staggered backwards, and as he fought to regain his senses, Kimberly aimed the Power Bow straight for him. The entire battleground went up in a blaze of sparks and smoke.

Watching the battle, Mike raised his voice. "Guys, we have injured Rangers! We have to go!"

"You have an escape?" Kevin asked.

"Kind of," Mike nodded, then reached for his Samuraiser. "Bear folding zord!"

* * *

Racing up the tower, Jason checked every level in turn, throwing open every door and kicking down the ones that were locked. But so far, he'd found no Moogers, which meant there was nothing on any of the lower floors worth protecting. But on the sixth level, he kicked open the door to find a line of small stone cells stretching away from him. Between him and the cells stood a dozen Moogers, all packed tightly into the corridor.

Seeing a Ranger suddenly appear, the beasts instinctively attacked. But Jason was ready for them. He caught a punch and slammed the demon into the wall, dropping low as a sword flashed towards him. But there was no room for the Mooger to swing again, and Jason kicked high and smashed the Mooger back. Finding his footing, he stepped around a low kick and threw the demon into its team-mates, before a right hook lifted another off its feet. There was no space in the narrow corridor for the Moogers to fight, forcing them to attack their opponent one at a time, and it was only a few seconds later that Jason flattened the last of them before turning back to the cells.

Kori's demonic brother Kaji stood at the end of the corridor beside the final cell. As Jason watched, Kaji held out his hands and summoned two swords. The blades were twisted and jagged, and seemed to radiate heat.

"You're trapped," the Nighlok said. "Are you ready to burn?"

"I'm leaving with my friend," Jason said. "Get out of my way. I'm not asking."

Still locked in the cell, Jayden heard Jason's voice and pressed his face against the window of the door. "Jason!" he shouted. "Jason I'm here!"

Jason smiled behind his helmet. "Hang on one second Jayden," he called. "I just need to take out the trash."

Kaji roared and charged forward, slicing his swords straight for his opponent. Jason dodged back, stepping around a second swing and ducking under a third. He aimed a high punch but the Nighlok slashed out with his sword, the blow smashing Jason back into the wall. Catching his breath, Jason regained his footing as the demon followed after him, carving the flaming swords through the air. Jason kicked high, but Kaji struck away Jason's boot with one of the blades, slashing again and forcing Jason back. The Nighlok followed after the Red Ranger, Jason stepping around the blades as they flashed through the air. Blocking one of the swords, Jason struck Kaji's hand away, but the demon was too fast. Another blow to the chest slammed Jason into the wall, where he crumpled to the ground out of breath.

"Pathetic," Kaji murmured, leaning down close.

Jason picked himself up off the ground. "Thanks," he said.

"For what?"

"For reminding me that I'm out of practice," Jason replied, and held out his hand. "Power Sword!"

In a flash of light, Jason's sword appeared in his hand. Kaji roared and slashed his blades for his opponent, but Jason raised his sword and held them in check in a shower of sparks. Kaji's eyes went wide, and Jason struck the blades away, forcing the demon back and carving forward. With Kaji retreating, Jason followed after him, and Kaji swung out desperately. Jason struck the blade away, blocked the second and smashed his fist into the demon's jaw. With Kaji losing ground every step, Jason pressed forward, slicing his blade through the air. Kaji ducked one slice, but couldn't avoid the second as Jason carved his sword across the demon's chest, throwing Kaji back in a shower of sparks. Before Kaji could retaliate, Jason swung high, forcing the first sword out of Kaji's hand before a blow to the second sword snapped the weapon clean in two. Even as the blades clattered to the floor, Jason spun on the spot and slammed his boot into Kaji's chest. The blow smashed Kaji back through the wall, and he toppled out of sight with a surprised yell.

Jason turned to the cell and struck at the lock, before pulling the door open.

"Jayden!" he said. Jayden fell out of the cell, wrapping his arms around the older Red Ranger, as Jason returned the embrace. "I'm here," Jason continued. "I got you."

"I'm so glad to see you," Jayden said, stepping back shakily.

"We have to get out of here," Jason said. "C'mon. Lean on me."

With Jayden's arm around his shoulder, Jason helped the younger Ranger back down the stairs towards the ground. As they approached the hall, Jayden felt a pair of eyes on him. Hearing an angry growl, he looked around, wary of danger. A red light was flickering from a crack in the stone. There was a dark figure beyond the light, just out of sight. He narrowed his eyes and recognised the shadowy outline.

"No," Jayden said. "That's impossible…"

Jason turned to him, oblivious to the figure watching them. "C'mon," he said, and raised his wrist. "Mike, do you have a way out? I've got him."

"You got it," came the reply.

The roof was suddenly ripped off by a giant black and green paw, as the bear zord tore into the building. Sunlight flooded over them, and Jayden blinked in the daylight as Jason helped him over the rubble and out onto the grass. Behind them, the tower had been dealt a fatal blow, and continued to crumble and break apart. Looking around, Jayden smiled as he saw his friends. All of them looked hurt, but were otherwise okay. More than that, they were surrounded by the Mighty Morphin' team.

"Jayden!" Mike shouted, and covered the distance between himself and the two Red Rangers in a heart-beat. "Are you okay?"

Jayden nodded as Jason and Mike helped him over to the other Rangers. "There's no time," Jayden mumbled, and everybody had to fight to hear him. "We need to go. But I saw him."

"Wait," Trini said. "Saw who?"

"The Nighlok responsible for destroying the house, for kidnapping us, for all of this," Jayden continued, his voice growing fainter. "It's not possible, he's dead. But I saw him."

"Who Jayden?" Emily asked.

"Yes, tell us who did this," Mia said.

"Serrator," Jayden gasped, and collapsed against Jason's shoulder. With no time to question him, the older Rangers helped the Samurai team into the waiting bear zord. Before long, the zord carried the Rangers to safety as the tower collapsed into rubble behind them.

_To be continued._


	6. Chapter 5

_Author's notes - thanks for the feedback everybody :). I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Chapter 4 was such fun to write, and I made sure everybody got in some awesome moments in every scene.__ Jokermask - I'm glad the villain-reveal shocked you, I thought I'd telegraphed that :). Like Jayden said, he's supposed to be dead, but I promise I'm not gonna leave a plot-point like that dangling. All will be explained :). Son of Whitebeard - I really liked that particular character. While Kaji and Kori are tough opponents, I wanted the major villain to be dangerous enough to warrant two teams fighting together. You know, he's not just a threat to one team, he's a threat to _all_ of them. ImaSupernaturalCSI - thank you for the kind feedback! I'm so glad you're enjoying my stories. Be sure to check out some of the short point-of-view stories, I think you'll like them too :). Brankel - thanks for the feedback again! While the first four chapters were about the MMPR team, from this point on, you'll get to see the Samurai team as well, and integrating the two teams was really fun to write, too. Anyway, enjoy chapter five! :) _

* * *

**Chapter Five**

"Hey," Kimberly frowned, turning back to the stretchers as Emily and Mia tried to climb to their feet. "Where's the sale?"

After leaving Castle Inabikari, the bear zord had taken them back to the burnt-out remains of the Shiba house. With the rear of the house structurally sound, the Rangers had been able to retreat into rooms that, for the most part, still had walls and ceilings. Ji was tending to Jayden in Ji's own chamber. While Antonio and Kevin were downstairs in the room that had once been the house's wine cellar, Mia and Emily were being tended to by Kimberly and Trini in one of the spare bedrooms.

At least, that was the idea. Trini and Kim quickly stepped back from the medical supplies kit over to the two beds as the younger Rangers tried to make their escape. Trini smiled warmly and rested a hand on Mia's shoulder, while Kimberly stood firm between Emily and the door.

"Jayden's hurt," Mia murmured softly. "He needs our help."

"And Mike!" Emily added, too exhausted to find a way around Kimberly. "Is he okay? I have to go help him…"

"No," Kim replied, her hands on her hips. "You guys are hurt too. The boys can take care of themselves for a little while. We'll check on them in a minute." Looking at the expression on Kimberly's face, Emily realised this wasn't a fight she was going to win. She lowered her head in defeat and sat back on the stretcher. "Now hold still," Kimberly continued. "We'll be done soon."

* * *

Across the hall, Jason knocked on the door to Ji's room to announce his presence, before nudging the door open and stepping inside. Jayden was lying on the bed as Ji leaned down over him, tending to his various wounds. Jayden's wrist and ankle were heavily bandaged, and from what Jason could see, the Red Samurai Ranger's chest was turning disturbing shades of purple.

Hearing footsteps, Ji glanced over his shoulder. His brow raised in irritation but he didn't speak, and turned back to focus on Jayden's injuries. But seeing Jason, Jayden's face and eyes lit up, and he grinned broadly.

"I'm just about done here," Ji said. "Do the other Rangers need tending to? I got the impression that your Trini was a doctor."

"A psychologist, technically," Jason replied. "But trust me. Emily and Mia are in good hands."

Ji nodded, and Jason saw a tiny smile of relief flicker across the man's face. "Then I need to tend to Kevin and Antonio downstairs," he said. Climbing to his feet, he fixed Jayden a pointed stare. "Stay where you are, young man. Keep off that ankle." With that, Ji gathered his supplies, stepped around Jason and left the room.

Jason watched him leave. "He still doesn't like me very much, does he?"

"I think he's mad I keep outsourcing," Jayden replied.

Jason laughed and pushed a chair over to the side of the bed. "Seriously, how are you?" he asked.

"Better than I thought," Jayden replied. "My wrist was only sprained. With some more healing spells and a bit of Panadol, I should be good as new in a couple of days."

"I'm glad."

"I just can't believe you're here," Jayden said. "Has it really been ten years?"

"You think you're surprised?" Jason began lightly. "You're a Red Ranger now."

"Yeah, sorry, I should've called," Jayden said. "I knew where you were."

"No, you've been busy," Jason said, and glanced around the room to Ji's books. "And I know it's not easy in the red suit. Still man, look at you. You're not my student anymore. You're all grown up."

"I'm feeling it today. Trust me."

"But you did it," Jason continued. "You settled down. And your friends seem totally devoted to you."

"A little too devoted, I'm afraid," Jayden murmured.

"Comes with the territory," Jason said. "But from talking to Mike, it seems like you guys are a good group."

"We really are," Jayden nodded. "Like you said, it's good to have people around you to help carry the weight." Jayden paused, and looked away. "After the demon attack at the hotel, Ji and I kept moving. Always different towns with different teachers. We never stayed longer than a few months. The demons stayed away from us for a long time after that, which I guess I have you to thank for." Jason smiled, and Jayden continued. "No matter where we ended up, I always tried to read the papers or catch some TV to see what you guys had done. When I was about fourteen, before we settled in Panorama City, I was angry for a long time at my whole family for dumping this thing on my head. Then I saw the news one night. I remember, it was you guys doing something crazy and impossible. But the way the six of you did the hero thing, without being asked, just because it was the right thing to do? It stayed with me."

"I'm happy you're okay," Jason said, and sat back in the chair. "I gotta know, though. What else did I miss in ten years?"

"It's been a long time," Jayden said. "I can give you the short version?"

Jason smiled. "Deal."

* * *

Downstairs in the cellar, Ji finished bandaging Kevin and stepped across to begin tending to Antonio as Zac and Billy looked on. The house may still have been vulnerable, and all the older Rangers had agreed to shadow their younger counterparts for as long as possible, even if Ji disapproved of them hovering so close while he worked.

"I can't believe it was Serrator," Antonio said. "After all the trouble we had taking him out the first time."

Kevin turned to him. "It is hard to believe," he said. "Jayden was hurt pretty badly. Maybe he didn't see what he thought he saw?"

"No, Jay wouldn't be mistaken," Antonio said. "Not about that."

"So this Serrator guy," Zac began. "He's bad news?"

"The worst," replied Antonio. "He's a Nighlok king, but he's insane. Even the other Nighlok were allied against him."

"He tried to flood the world," Kevin added, "by literally cracking the planet in two. He probably would've destroyed both worlds if he'd succeeded, but we stopped him and destroyed him."

"At least we thought we did," Antonio said.

"It was bad enough when Deker survived his own destruction," Kevin said.

Billy glanced to Zac. "Wait, who's this Deker?" Billy asked.

"A cursed swordsman," Antonio replied. "Part Nighlok, part human. He wants nothing more than a duel to the death against my Jay. We thought he got what he wanted a few months back, but he showed up again a short while later."

Billy leaned forward. "How did he survive?"

"His sword Uramasu," Kevin replied. "It took the blow meant for Deker and shattered, and that's what saved Deker's life."

Zac and Billy shared a look. "Out of curiosity, who gave Deker this sword in the first place?" Zac asked.

Kevin glanced to Antonio, and suddenly looked thoughtful. "Serrator," he said.

* * *

Zac, Billy, Kevin and Antonio stepped into the ruined living room with Ji trailing behind them, to greet Emily, Mia, Trini and Kimberly. At the sound, Mike and Tommy stepped inside, while Jayden and Jason soon followed, Jayden leaning heavily on Jason for support.

"What's going on?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, it's like a convention in here," Mike added.

"We figured it out," Zac said.

"You were right Jay!" Antonio said. "It was totally Serrator. We know how he survived."

"How?" Mia asked.

"Doing this for a decade has taught us that most badguys are pretty predictable," Zac began. "Which tends to work out well for us, actually. Once you strip away the giant monsters and mad schemes to enslave the world, what do you get?"

"Someone who wants to secure their own longevity," Billy replied.

"Bill, what do you mean?" Jason asked.

"This Serrator, he cursed somebody called Deker into being half-Nighlok," Zac replied. "He gave Deker the sword that saved his life because Serrator was playing a long game to manipulate Deker into cracking open the planet, right?"

Trini glanced to Kim. "I feel like we've missed something," Trini said.

"It's been a long year," Jayden said. "Zac, was it? That's right."

Antonio stepped forward. "But the thing is, what if Deker was more than that?" he asked. "What if Deker was plan B?"

The room fell silent, as everyone began following the same train of thought to its logical end. "Serrator forges this blade for Deker," Billy began, "with the idea that the sword Uramasu may save Deker's life one day. When Jayden fought Deker, Serrator got the opportunity to test his theory. And when Deker did in fact survive, Serrator saw his plan was a success. So he made a sword for himself."

"That's a good theory," Jayden said. "But there's one problem."

"Yes," Mia agreed. "Serrator never fought with a sword."

"Or maybe we just didn't see it," Antonio said, and turned to Billy. "Can I?" and he pointed to Billy's laptop on the counter. Billy nodded, and Antonio made his way over, switched the computer on and quickly pulled up news footage of the battle with Serrator. Everyone crowded around the counter to watch. The footage was at a great distance, and nobody could see Serrator holding any weapons. Once the Gigazord's giant red sword had sliced Serrator in two, the screen lit up, and everything was lost from view.

"Freeze frame it," Kimberly suggested.

Antonio rewound the footage and slowed it right down, but to no avail. "It's too bright," he shrugged. "I can't see anything."

Billy stepped forward. "Perhaps we need a different perspective," he said.

"Be my guest," Antonio said.

"I'm not sure this will achieve anything," Ji murmured from behind the group. "And you should all be resting."

Mike glanced to the team's mentor with a knowing smile. "Ji, I've seen what these guys can do," he said. "I think you better trust them."

Billy smiled, and glanced to Jason. "Various government agencies tend to keep a close eye on cities with operating teams of Rangers," he began, his fingers dancing over the keyboard. "There are probably three satellites in geosynchronous orbit above Panorama City even as we speak. The helpful thing? They're all surprisingly easy to hack." The Samurai Rangers turned to each other in wonder, and in a few seconds, Billy had pulled up footage of the battle against Serrator from high above. Manipulating the angle, Billy zoomed in close, and slowed it right down. As the Rangers watched, the footage crawled past them, frame-by-frame. As the Gigazord's sword fell towards the Nighlok king, everybody gasped.

"What is that?" Mia asked.

Onscreen, in the half-second before the blade reached its target, Serrator was pulling something shiny from his robes. An attosecond later, it was lost from view.

"There it is," Kevin said. "There's Serrator's sword."

"Which is how he survived," Jayden said. "Everything we saw after that was just an illusion."

"But it begs the question," Antonio said, and gazed around the group. "Now that he's back, what's his next plan?"

* * *

Jayden hobbled outside to where Jason was standing on the patio.

"Are you okay putting pressure on that ankle?" Jason asked. "Is Ji gonna yell at me?"

Leaning his cane against the remains of the wall, Jayden stepped away, unassisted. "It's like learning to ride a bike," he said proudly. "Which I never actually learned to do, come to think of it," and he leaned in close. "Should I pick a different metaphor?"

"Nah, you were selling it. Commit."

Jayden laughed. "So where is this thing?"

They heard footsteps behind them, and turned to see Ji and the other Rangers gathering in the kitchen. The group stepped aside as Billy and Trini came past. Suited up in their Ranger gear, they carried the burned teddy bear and circuitry out past the two Red Rangers and into the yard.

"Are you sure it's broken?" Jayden asked.

"Affirmative," Billy nodded. "The heat radiated by the fire fused all the circuitry and caused irreparable damage to most of the internal wiring. I couldn't fix it if I tried."

Jayden turned to Jason, and Jason smiled. "He's sure it's broken," Jason replied.

"Still," added Ji, as everyone gathered around the two Red Rangers, "it's best to make sure." Trini and Billy lowered the device onto the grass and stepped away. "And since we know it can be damaged by fire? Jayden, the floor is yours."

Billy and Trini demorphed in two flashes of light, and joined the others on the patio. Once everyone was behind him, Jayden raised his samuraiser and stepped forward.

"Emily and Mia, I'll need help here," Jayden said. "This is gonna be hot. Emily, can you…?"

"I think so," Emily replied. She waved her morpher, and four rocky walls materialised around the device.

"Good work," Jayden said. "Mia, can you channel in as much oxygen as you can?"

"You got it," Mia said, and raised her morpher.

"Okay," Jayden said, then focussed his attention on the ruined device. "Burn." He drew a kanji symbol in the air, and seconds later, fire roared up over the top of Emily's stone barrier, the jet of flame growing brighter as Mia channelled a stream of air into it. Everyone shielded their eyes and stepped back as heat from the blaze washed over them. In a few seconds, Jayden whipped his hand and the fire symbol faded away. Once Kevin had extinguished the remains, the rocky walls vanished, and the Rangers could see the device had been reduced to melted slag.

Jayden turned to the Green Samurai Ranger. "Mike?"

"Yes sir," Mike replied. With that, vines and roots burst out of the turf, wrapping themselves around the charred metal and dragging it under the dirt. The device was soon lost from sight, and the grass surged back over it.

"That's one problem down," Kim said, as everyone turned back to the ruined house.

"Yeah," Zac agreed. "If only we could fix the house that easily."

Ji pulled his samurai phone out of his robes. "Well, actually…"

The Samurai Rangers' faces all fell. "Dude, are you serious?" Mike asked.

"The reason this house was the home of the Shiba clan for generations," Ji began, "is because when it was built decades ago, several protection spells were put into place that simply need to be activated like computer programs. This isn't the first time this house has been destroyed, but hopefully, it will be the last. Rangers, let's show our guests something special."

The older Rangers stepped out onto the grass as the Samurai Rangers formed a line alongside their mentor. "Follow me," Ji said. He raised his samurai phone and waved his arm in broad, wide strokes, painting a glowing kanji symbol in the air. The other Rangers followed suit.

Kimberly recalled her Japanese lessons from high school, and turned to Billy beside her. "Is it me, or is that totally the Japanese symbol for 'rebuild'?"

"Affirmative," Billy nodded.

With that, Ji flicked his wrist, and the seven symbols flew forward into the ruined walls. The house vanished in a blaze of light, and everyone covered their eyes. After a few seconds, they looked back to the house. The walls facing them had been rebuilt. In the house itself, rubble was bouncing along the ground, shuffling back into place. Everywhere the Rangers looked, cracks were resealing by themselves and debris was vanishing. As they watched, the storm of light rolled back through the building, and before long, even the roof tiles were flying back into place. After another few minutes, the storm was over, and the rebuilt Shiba house was standing before them.

Ji smiled proudly. "We'll need to replace some of the furniture," he began, "but we have four walls and a roof again. Now, I need to update the intrusion spells," and he turned to Billy and Trini. "Michael tells me that you're the resident technological experts? We may need your assistance to rewire the house."

"We're happy to help," Trini said.

"Antonio, show them the coffee table and get them started," Ji continued. He glanced over to Jason, and Jason couldn't help but see the happiness in Ji's eyes. "There's work to be done!"

* * *

With the boys moving furniture around the newly-restored Shiba house, Kevin and Mike arguing over the exact spot where the couch used to be, and Billy and Trini helping Antonio rewire the house's computer systems, Kimberly swept her gaze around the living room and realised that Emily and Mia were missing. Looking over to the dojo, the Pink Ranger began to hear two quiet voices from within, almost drowned out by the boys shouting in the living room. Walking over, she hesitated for a second then pushed the door open. Mia and Emily were inside wearing their samurai training uniforms. While they were still bandaged and bruised, the two Rangers were in the middle of some light stretches.

"I was wondering where you two disappeared to," Kim said.

The two Samurai Rangers looked up. "Kimberly, hey!" Emily called, as Kim stepped into the room and slid the door shut behind her.

The dojo was wide and airy, with a high ceiling over the training mats on the floor. The shelves along the walls showcased a number of ancient weapons and samurai training gear, but more than anything else, Kim felt like she was right back home in the Youth Centre.

"You guys doing some training?" Kim asked.

Mia nodded. "Nothing serious, we just wanted to do some stretching," she replied. "Make sure everything still works."

"The Nighlok know we're recovering," Emily added. "We just never know when there'll be another attack. Thanks again for everything you did today. You guys were incredible."

Kim kicked off her shoes. "Well I tell you what," she said. "Let me join you, and we can call it even. The battle this morning was my first fight in a long time. I think I'm a little rusty."

Mia's eyes went wide, and she turned to Emily who was similarly surprised. "We'd be honoured," Mia breathed.

"Cool," Kim grinned, and stepped onto the mats. On the floor were a pile of wooden training swords.

"It must be strange, coming back into this after such a long time," Emily said.

"I thought it would be, but it really wasn't," Kim replied. "I don't think it ever leaves you. I'm sure you've heard the expression, 'once a Ranger, always a Ranger'? I've never really thought about it much before, but they're not wrong."

"I bet you have some great stories," Mia said. "All the zords you got to pilot, all the battles you got to fight alongside the boys."

"It wasn't just that," Kim said. "Trini and I used to take out armies and fight gods by ourselves sometimes."

"Whoa," murmured Emily. "We have to stick so close to Jayden though."

Kimberly thought back to when they'd all returned from the castle. Some things were starting to make sense. "How come?" she asked.

"He's our leader," Mia replied. "He's the key to defeating Master Xandred. We have to protect him."

Kimberly nodded, realising what they were saying. "So what are your elements?" she asked. "That was really cool before, out in the yard."

"I'm Earth," Emily replied.

"And I'm wind," Mia said brightly.

Kim smiled as a light gust swept through the dojo. "To think, I only ever had my bow," she said. "You guys are so powerful."

"We are?" Emily asked.

"Emily, you're the Earth," Kim said. "That's the planet we stand on, that's everything! And Mia? The cool breeze on a summer's afternoon? That's you. The gale that can level a building? That's you too. And the hurricane that can knock a city over, that's you as well." She paused, letting what she was saying sink in. "Anyway, I was promised training," and catching one of the kendo swords with her foot, she flipped it up into the air and caught it. "It's been a while since I've used one of these," Kim said, then smiled. "So how about you teach me something?"

* * *

"You're sure you don't want to come with us?" Kimberly asked, standing by the patio as the others gathered by the front gate, lit by the glow of the lanterns in the yard.

Tommy shook his head, and nodded back to the house, quiet in the evening shadows. "Nah," he replied. "Jayden and Jason wanted to hang back and catch up some more. Someone needs to keep an eye on those two. Besides, I'm still buzzing from the fight today. I need some downtime. Just me and the trees."

Kimberly smiled. "We won't be long," she said. "We're just getting dinner and doing some late-night grocery shopping."

Across the lawn, Mia waved to the two Rangers. "Kim, hurry!" she called.

"Someone's got a fan," Tommy teased.

Kim laughed. "Stay out of trouble," she said. "I'll bring you back something!" and she ran after the group. Talking and laughing, the crowd of Rangers stepped out onto the street and disappeared from sight, as the Shiba front gate shut behind them.

Tommy gazed around the yard. The house was quiet. Jayden and Jason were talking inside, but for the moment, he had the place to himself.

Getting a water bottle from the kitchen, he left it on the patio and stepped out onto the training deck. Taking a minute to slow his breathing, he started with some simple katas. Before long, he moved on to more complicated movements, and steadily worked his way through his favourite routine, alone but for the moon and stars.

Or so he thought. As he stopped to get a drink, he heard a sigh in the shadows, and smiled to himself. "Hey Mike," he called.

The bushes rustled, and Mike stepped into the moonlight, blushing. "Uh," the younger Ranger stammered, keeping his attention on his shoes. "I was totally, I was, um… awkwardly standing in the trees watching you train."

Tommy gestured him over. "Don't stand on ceremony, we're all Rangers here," he said. "Come on in. Show me what you've got."

Mike swallowed nervously, and joined Tommy on the training deck. "Go easy on me?" Mike asked.

The two Rangers faced each other, arms raised, and Tommy kept his distance, content to let Mike make the first move. Waiting a couple seconds more, Mike suddenly struck out, aiming a high jab. Tommy dodged the move and stepped around a second. Blocking a kick, he struck back, swinging high. Mike dropped low and rolled back as Tommy kicked low. Mike leaped to his feet and charged forward, his heart pounding, but as he swung a roundhouse punch, Tommy caught his arm, spun him around and stunned him with a blow to the ribs. The younger Green Ranger let out a cough, and staggered back winded.

"Sorry," he wheezed, finding his footing.

"No, you're doing great," Tommy said. "But I guess you guys are more used to weapons than hand-to-hand. You're keeping your side unprotected."

"Okay," Mike said. Tommy suddenly ran forward, swinging high. Mike dodged the blow, and when Tommy aimed for Mike's ribs, Mike blocked the move, striking away Tommy's hand and forcing Tommy back with a blow to the chest.

Mike grinned as Tommy walked back over. "Thanks man," Mike said. "That was awesome."

Tommy sat down on the deck to take a gulp of water, and Mike joined him a second later. "You wanna see something really cool?" he asked. Reaching for his back pocket, Tommy held out his hand, and the Dragonzord power coin glowed in the moonlight.

"Dude!" Mike shouted. With barely-contained glee, he took the coin from Tommy's hand. "That's the Dragonzord coin! Man, Dragonzord was always my favourite. That thing was awesome! He was big and loud, stomping onto the land from out of the ocean. I loved that guy."

Tommy took the coin back and replaced it in his morpher. "So tell me," he said quietly, "what was it about the Green Ranger? It can't just be the green thing. When I first showed up, you would've been way too young."

"It's not just the suit," Mike replied, "but it's what the Green Ranger meant. It was a story about redemption. Sure, he showed up bad, but the other Rangers forgave him and accepted him. The Power Rangers gave someone a second chance to prove themselves and do the right thing. That's what I always thought. Isn't that what the Rangers are all about?"

Tommy smiled to himself. "I guess so," he said, then put his water bottle away and jumped to his feet. "C'mon, let me teach you something else…"

A few metres away, Jayden and Jason watched as Tommy and Mike stepped back onto the training deck and continued sparring. Jayden couldn't help but smile.

"I knew he'd find you," Jayden said to Jason. "Mike's one of our youngest, and it took him longer than everyone else to settle in, but he's a good kid. He's like the little brother I never had, you know?"

Jason smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I really do."

"So I hate to ask," Jayden said, "given that you guys have done so much for us already, but how long will you be staying?"

"The Nighlok could attack at any time," Jason replied. "You guys are still at half-strength. If this Serrator is as scary as you all say…"

"Trust me, he's worse," Jayden said.

"…then for the time being, we're sticking around," Jason finished. "We'll see this thing through, together. I promise."

"Awesome."

* * *

Kaji gazed despondently around the destroyed ruins of the ancient fortress, lit up by flickering torches held by the Moogers standing nearby. "Well," the demon murmured, "that went well."

"Quiet," Serrator snapped irritably, a few metres away. "We almost lost everything. The Rangers are gone, we have another team to deal with, and the Shiba boy saw me. We have _nothing_ because of your incompetence. How did they even find us?" The Nighlok king lowered his voice and looked away. "It's what I get for working with amateurs. Trust the Tenki brothers. What a brilliant idea. I mean to destroy the legacy of the Power Rangers forever, and I end up babysitting."

"Now Serrator," Kori replied coolly, standing alone over in the shadows. "We couldn't possibly have anticipated that the forest whelp would return with another team of Rangers. Besides, don't look at this as a loss. See it as an opportunity."

Serrator fixed Kori with a steely gaze. "What do you mean?"

"There may be more Rangers," Kori began, "but the Samurai team are still at half-strength. Meanwhile, we fought this other team and have their measure. We can learn from this, and stand a far greater chance next time. Anyway, your plan is still workable, is it not?"

Serrator looked around the ruined fortress. "It'll definitely need some adjustments," he murmured, then suddenly looked thoughtful. "In fact, with this many Rangers, this could play to our advantage. Oh yes, this is more than salvageable Kori. This is even better! Boys," and suddenly cheerful, he spun back to face them and clapped his hands. "Time for plan B."

_To be continued._


	7. Chapter 6

_Author's notes - We're just over the halfway point. Thanks for sticking with me so far :). I just realised that this is the second story I've written where I reference the day that the colour mauve declared war on humanity, and the Rangers and Zordon had to deal with the event. One of these days, I'm actually gonna have to sit down and write that story, 'cause it sounds like an interesting one. Gypsymooney'sgirl - I thought that would be a neat little touch, I'm glad you noticed :). You'll particularly like one of the scenes in _this _chapter, I think. Son of Whitebeard - I like the way you think, actually, but that's not quite where I'm heading. Still, props for thinking outside the box :). Anyway, into chapter six!_

* * *

**Chapter Six**

"So," Jason began, holding court in front of the crowded Shiba living room, "what do we know about Serrator?"

The Rangers and Ji all glanced to each other, everyone waiting for someone else to break the silence and speak first. Billy and Trini were sitting together on the couch opposite, while Mike and Emily were squeezed onto a single seat and trying not to look too comfortable. Kevin was on the ground in front of Ji with his legs crossed, while Antonio was standing a few feet away from Jayden, having barely left Jayden's side in the last twenty-four hours.

"He's a Nighlok king," Emily said. "He's not as powerful as Xandred, but he's pretty close."

"He's crazy," Mike added.

"Ruthless," Mia corrected, "and dangerous. He's a vicious monster."

"But a persistent one," said Kevin.

Jayden nodded. "Serrator isn't about to give up or go away," he said.

"I agree," Ji said. "You thwarted his plans once, plans he'd been working on for centuries. He's not going to forgive that."

"He doesn't sound like the kind of guy who takes defeat well," Zac said.

"Then we should assume that his end goal remains unchanged," Billy said. "That he still plans to use human despair to flood the mortal world."

"He captured us to keep us out of the way for whatever he has planned," Antonio said. "He doesn't have that luxury anymore. Whatever he's gonna do, why do I have the feeling that it's gonna be twice as bad?"

"Jayden, what do we do now?" Kevin asked.

Jayden opened his mouth to speak, but Jason stepped forward. "You say the city's been quiet ever since Xandred was petrified?" Jason asked. Jayden retreated quietly back against the wall.

"It's why we were so unguarded after we killed Serrator," Antonio said.

"Well, the first time," Mike added.

"So for the last week you guys were out of action?" Jason asked. "Then we need to play catch up. Check the newspapers, go back over the news reports for the last week, and check out local internet blogs and news sites."

"Look for anything out-of-the-ordinary or unusual," Trini said.

"Would the Nighlok really make the nightly news?" Kevin frowned.

Kimberly turned to him. "You'd be shocked," she began. "We've always found that in cities with teams of Rangers, people tend to pay attention to strange events."

"That's a great start," Jason began. "But we…"

His voice was drowned out as the house alarm began blaring. Everybody looked around in surprise, and Ji dashed over to the coffee table. "That's a gap sensor!" he shouted.

The Rangers all followed him over to the table. "Does that mean a Nighlok monster is attacking?" asked Tommy.

Ji pulled up a map of the city. "No," he replied, and everyone let out a sigh of relief. "But something's coming through. I can't see what. It's in an abandoned housing estate west of the city."

"We should go check it out," Mike said.

Jayden raised his hand. "Someone needs to stay back just in case something else happens," he said. "We've been caught by surprise once this week already."

"Good thinking," Ji said. "Rangers, split into teams and move out."

* * *

"We've definitely got out-of-the-ordinary covered," Mike said brightly.

Kimberly, Mia, Billy, Kevin and Ji had stayed back in the Shiba house while the other Rangers had teleported into the city's west. Searching abandoned houses for any signs of trouble, the Rangers had ventured into an overgrown backyard, only to find a cracked concrete path glowing red and spilling forth a puddle of foul-smelling blood-red water.

"Is that what I think it is?" Zac asked.

Emily nodded. "Sanzu river water," she replied. "Yep."

"This isn't supposed to be happening," Antonio said. "I thought we'd closed all the gaps from last time."

Trini dropped a leaf into the puddle, and watched as the leaf immediately caught alight and burned to ashes. "Interesting," she said. "The water only burns organic substances. But it has no effect on the stones or the dirt."

Jayden held his phone to his ear. "Are you getting this Ji?"

Ji's voice crackled through their communicators. "Loud and clear," he replied. "If water from the Sanzu is indeed leaking through from the netherworld, something must be terribly wrong somewhere. Hold on, William is retrieving something from his luggage. It's... it's a…" and there was a pause. "It does what?"

"It tests the integrity of dimensional boundaries in localised geographic areas," came Billy's reply.

"Of course it does," Mike said.

Standing beside him, Trini smiled. "You'd be surprised how useful that can be."

"I'm definitely getting some unusual readings, even here," Billy said. "The dimensional borders are weaker right across Panorama City."

"It was Serrator," Jayden said. "Thanks to the time he tried to crack the planet open, the dimensional walls must be a lot weaker than normal."

"According to my device, the walls _are_ healing," Billy said, "just not as fast as they otherwise should be. The damage Serrator wreaked must've been substantial."

Antonio looked around the group. "You guys know what this means, right?"

"Yeah," Jayden said. "One single great spike of despair might be all Serrator needs to tear the dimensional walls open again. Worse still, Serrator probably knows this."

Jason gestured around the garden. "Can you guys do some magic to lock this place up?" he asked. "We can't have anyone stumbling onto this by accident."

"Absolutely," Jayden nodded, and turned to Mike, Emily and Antonio. "C'mon guys…"

"And while we're here in the city," Jason continued, "we should at least have a look around."

* * *

While the Rangers split up and fanned out across the city, Kimberly took the opportunity to check the messages on her phone. She'd just replied to one of her employees when Ji stepped past.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

Kim slid the phone back into her backpack. "Just checking on the café back home," she said, then paused. "I don't know if it's encouraging or disheartening when they can survive without you."

"Ah," Ji said. "The goal of every mentor is to one day become irrelevant. All it means is that we've done our job well."

"Thanks," Kimberly said. "And thanks for putting us up here."

"You're welcome," Ji replied. "Although it may have been against my better judgement, I must admit it is refreshing to hear the Shiba house full of voices again. Will you be joining Kevin in the dojo?"

"I was just gonna stop by the kitchen and get something to drink," Kim said.

"Be on your guard," Ji said softly. "Mia's in there."

Kimberly frowned but nodded and went to find the fridge. As Ji had said, she found Mia in the kitchen standing by the bench. A recipe book lay open in front of her, with various pots and jars on the counter around her.

"Oh Kim, hi," Mia said. "I wanted to cook a feast for you guys!"

"That's so sweet," Kim smiled. "But at the moment, I'm just needing a glass of water," and she grabbed a glass and went to the sink.

"Well can I interest you in my sardine and mustard milkshake?"

Kim stepped back around the counter. "I think the water will do for now."

"Fair enough," Mia said. "I can't find the mustard. They must've hidden it."

They heard footsteps behind them, and turned to see Kevin step into the kitchen. Spotting Mia behind the counter, he froze mid-step.

"Kevin," Mia began, "do you…?"

"Sorry Mia, I just had lunch," Kevin said quickly, then turned to Kim and mouthed, 'run'. As he retreated out of the room, Kimberly's expression fell, and she turned to Mia.

"What was that about?" the older Pink Ranger asked.

Mia sat down on the stool beside Kim and lowered her voice. She looked around to make sure nobody was listening, and then leaned in close as if confessing a dark secret. "I'm a terrible cook," Mia said softly. "They think I don't know. It's not that I don't try! I have such great ideas for flavours and tastes, but it never really works out how I want it to."

"I'm sorry," Kimberly said. "I guess the others don't want to hurt your feelings."

Mia nodded. "I expect so," she said. "It's kind of them. It's just, my parents were great warriors and my brother is studying to be a doctor. In his spare time, he's a rock-star. It's so hard to not be good at something, you know?"

"So it's easier to keep pretending?" Kim asked.

"Exactly," Mia said. "I don't know. I guess I'm worried they'll think I'm useless if I can't do this."

Kim leaned forward. "Can I tell you something?" she asked.

"Of course."

"In all these years of being the Pink Ranger," Kim began, "I've fought gods, monsters and demons. I stepped foot on faraway worlds, I travelled through time, I stopped alien invasions and protected civilisations that don't even exist yet. I saw some horrible things, but also some pretty awesome things. Then there was the day the colour mauve declared war on humanity."

Mia's eyes went wide, and she laughed. "What?"

"Yeah, that one's a long story," Kim said. "The point I'm making is, throughout all those crazy adventures, you know the one thing I could always count on? My friends at my back. Your friends love you. I can see that. They're not gonna make a huge deal about you not being a perfect cook, I promise. That's not how friendships work."

"You're sure?"

"You see Billy?" Kim asked. "The smartest guy in the Universe? It took him _years _to learn how to cook."

"Really?" Mia breathed. "I don't believe it."

"He'd get so frustrated," Kim said. "He'd tell us it was basic chemistry, and it should've been second nature to him. He's still not great, but he's better than he used to be. Look, it's okay to fail. To not be good at stuff. I know, 'cause when I was your age, there were plenty of things I wasn't good at. Knowing your strengths is important, but so is knowing your weaknesses. It gives you something to focus on, goals to aim for. It lets you know what you _are_ talented at. You'll get this. I know you will. You just have to give it time."

"You really believe that?" Mia asked.

"Absolutely," Kim said, and smiled warmly. "You're the hurricane Mia. Don't ever forget it."

* * *

With the cries of seagulls and the smell of the ocean strong in the air, Jayden and Antonio wandered down past the Panorama City wharves, nodding greetings to the fishermen sitting by the docks. Antonio stopped to check what some of the fishermen had been catching, and Jayden wandered on without realising it. Looking up, Antonio lost sight of Jayden and glanced around frantically for a second, before spotting him and racing over to catch up.

"Hey," he scolded, catching his breath as Jayden turned to him. "Don't walk off on me like that. It's not safe."

"Worried you're going to lose me?" Jayden asked.

"I almost did, once this week already," Antonio replied, and Jayden heard the note of fear in his voice. "I don't want to risk losing you again."

Jayden smiled, and nudged Antonio's shoulder with his own. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

"Well I'm sticking by you, just in case."

"I'm glad," Jayden said. "Still, there's twelve Rangers in town. I think we're going to be okay."

"It is good they're gonna stick around for a while," Antonio said.

"And they've been doing this so much longer than we have," Jayden added. "I feel like we could learn a lot from them."

Antonio nodded and glanced along the dock. Seeing a familiar face, he waved. "Hey, Mr Olsen!" he shouted. A fisherman with a grizzled salt and pepper beard turned to the boys and smiled. "Mr Olsen is one of the first guys I met when I moved here," Antonio explained. "He owns an electronics shop on the other side of town."

"So why is he fishing in the middle of the afternoon?" Jayden asked.

"Hmm," Antonio murmured. "Good point. Hang on a second," and he jogged over to the edge of the dock. "Hey, long time no see."

"Antonio," the fisherman said. "It's been a while. Where have you been the last week? You missed some good days."

Antonio shifted on the spot nervously. Sure, he thought. Be a Ranger. Impress Jayden. Oh, and lie to your friends! Nobody ever mentioned that part.

"Out of town," he said quickly. "How come you're not at the shop today?"

"I can't open right now," Mr Olsen replied. "The place is still a crime scene. The police are going over the shop with a fine-toothed comb. It's got 'em stumped, and me too."

Antonio frowned, and sat down beside him. "What happened?"

"Oddest thing you've ever seen in your life," Mr Olsen said. "I went in two days ago to open up, same as every morning. But when I opened the door, they were gone. Every video camera in the store had vanished overnight. Even the display ones had been taken, and they'd been bolted down."

"I'm sorry. I hope they catch the thieves soon. How'd they get in?"

"That's the thing," the fisherman continued. "The whole place was locked up tight. The windows were shut. It's like the thieves slipped in through the crack in the door. And I haven't had a robbery in thirty years. It's dreadful."

Antonio looked away for a minute, deep in thought. "I'm sorry Mr Olsen," he said. "But listen, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." Climbing to his feet, he jogged back over to where Jayden stood waiting.

Jayden saw the look on Antonio's face. "What's wrong?" Jayden asked.

"I think I found a clue," Antonio replied. "Call everyone."

Jayden nodded, and raised his samurai phone. "Jayden to all points," he began, "Antonio's got something," and he fell silent while Antonio relayed the story he'd just heard to both teams.

"But stealing electronics," Tommy's voice crackled, once Antonio had finished. "Why? For what purpose? It's not like Serrator needs to make money fencing them."

"It does sound like an odd thing to target," came Ji's voice.

"But no human criminal could've possibly broken into the shop by slipping under the door," Jayden replied.

"Serrator always was a bit left-of-centre," Mia added.

"That's what I was thinking," Antonio said. "Serrator likes modern tech. He always has. He armed the Moogers with those laser cannons, which is why we needed the Bullzooka. Then there was the fair ground teddy bear. He has a habit of thinking outside the box. I don't think we should put it past him."

"So whatever Serrator has planned, he wants to record it," Jason said.

"Or he needs an audience," Mike chimed in.

The low rumble of distant thunder suddenly rolled down out of the sky. Jayden and Antonio looked up to see dark clouds drifting down from the mountains. By the water, several fishermen had already started packing up.

"Either way," Jayden said, "let's head home before the storm hits. See you guys back at the house." Letting his morpher fall, he and Antonio jogged away.

* * *

The storm that followed was violent but brief. Windows across the city shook with every crack of thunder, while forks of lightning lit up the sky. Thankfully, the storm quickly moved out to sea but left steady rain in its wake. As the night grew darker, the twelve Rangers sat around the living room having dinner, listening to the rain and comparing the leads they'd spent the afternoon chasing down.

At Kevin's urging, the Samurai Rangers retreated into the dojo after dinner for the first full training session since their return from Castle Inabikari. Still working on the house's warning systems, Antonio wished them a good night and disappeared inside. Letting his dinner settle, Jason joined them but sat down at the edge of the room with his back against the wall to watch the younger Rangers train. Hearing footsteps, he looked up to see Tommy sit down beside him.

"You okay?" Tommy asked.

"Just tired."

"It's more than that though," Tommy said. "We've been doing this for a decade now. I know when something's really bothering you. I can see it in your eyes."

Jason sighed, and Tommy realised for the first time that Jason was watching Jayden. "This is definitely a young person's game," Jason replied. "I'm doing that control freak thing again, aren't I? Taking over this morning, I mean. I thought I'd gotten past that. It's so hard to switch off."

"You care about those kids," Tommy said. "They know it comes from a good place." He frowned. "Except maybe Kevin. I cannot figure him out."

Jason laughed. "I'm just worried about Jayden, I guess."

Tommy leaned in close. "When Mike told us what had happened to the Samurai Rangers, I saw that look in your eyes," he began. "You would've moved Heaven and Earth for those kids. We've met other teams of Rangers before, so I don't get it."

"I owe Jayden a lot," Jason replied. "You remember that night ten years ago, there in front of the Park Hotel? When you guys fought Oni and we told Sagasu to leave Jayden and Ji alone?"

"Apparently he listened. Ji told me they never saw Sagasu again."

"But that was the first time I really got it," Jason continued. "Watching you guys shoot down from the sky and fight off all those demons, that was the first time I ever saw the Rangers how everyone else sees them. It was like looking at us through Jayden's eyes. It was the first time I ever got what the Power Rangers mean to people." He broke off as Jayden helped Mike and Emily through a complicated series of steps. "I feel like I owe him for that."

"That's fair enough," Tommy replied. "But what are _your_ strengths? Don't worry about being a Ranger, man. Be a teacher. I know you're good at that," and he stood up. "I'm gonna turn in. See you in the morning."

* * *

Billy was sitting in the shadows on the patio watching the rain when Trini stepped outside to join him.

"I talked to my parents," Trini said. She sat down beside her husband and leaned back against his chest. "Ryan's fine. He's missing us, but he's doing okay. I told them we'd be home soon. Apparently we'll need to build a new toyroom for all the things they bought him today."

Billy laughed. Behind them, the door slid open again and Antonio stepped out.

"Hey guys," he said, and they saw he was tinkering with some wiring. "Do you mind if I join you? It's cooler outside."

"Not at all," Trini said.

Antonio made himself comfortable on the bench beside theirs. "So I gotta ask the golden question," he began, without taking his eyes off the device in his hands. "Do you ever miss it?"

"Miss it?" Trini repeated.

"Being a Ranger," Antonio replied. "Fighting badguys and stuff."

Billy and Trini swapped glances. "Maybe that's how the other Rangers feel, but it's never felt like that for us," Trini replied. "The idea that you're either a Ranger or you're retired, one or the other."

"Being a Ranger might not be a big part of our lives anymore," Billy explained, "not with careers and a family. But we're still Rangers. We always will be. I don't believe we ever miss it because every day is one more adventure."

Trini reached down and took Billy's hand. "And we're lucky we get to share it with each other."

"Some days it's hard," Billy nodded, meeting Antonio's gaze. "But it's never not worth it. Not for one picosecond."

The Gold Samurai Ranger grinned. "Aww, that's sweet," he said.

"What about you?" Trini asked. "Mike told us how you built your own morpher. That's pretty impressive work."

"I've always liked tinkering," Antonio replied. "Ever since I was a boy when Jayden gave me the Octozord. I've been fascinated with how things work."

"It's always pleasant to have a hobby," Billy nodded.

"Oh no," Antonio said quickly. "My heart belongs to the sea."

"Fishing, you mean?" Trini asked.

"Yeah! I grew up by the coast. It's in my blood. I always loved the peacefulness of just you and the water. It's nice to have that."

"It sounds relaxing," Trini said.

"It sounds time-intensive," Billy added. "With the daily Nighlok attacks, when do you get the time to enjoy it?"

"At first I thought it'd be easy to juggle everything," Antonio said. "But the threats got bigger and scarier, and I ended up with less and less time to do anything other than fight monsters. You guys used to do this all the time, you'd remember what it's like. It took me ages, but I finally figured out that I needed some time for me. Otherwise I'd just burn out, and then I'd be no good to Jay or anyone."

"So how did you solve your dilemma?" Billy asked.

"With no time, I made time!" Antonio exclaimed. "Every couple of days, I took an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. When your life gets busier, time to stop and catch your breath doesn't just happen by itself. You have to make it happen. It's all about figuring out how to adjust."

He nodded, satisfied, and Billy and Trini exchanged knowing smiles.

"Do you mind if we sit here and keep you company a little while longer?" Trini asked, as Billy wrapped his arms around her.

"Of course not," Antonio smiled.

And the three Rangers sat there and listened to the rain together.

_To be continued._


	8. Chapter 7

_Author's notes - sorry for the wait between chapters. Darn this real-life thing :). Enjoy :)._

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

With the sun still low in the sky, Jayden leaned back against the patio awning and soaked in the warmth of the red dawn. It was still overcast, but most of the rain had moved out to sea. Everything was cool and quiet in the morning. The city in the distance was filled with the hum of street-sweepers and the buzz of cafés as people got ready for work and school.

Stepping into the living room, Jason saw Jayden outside and made his way out onto the patio to join him, noticing the palm-sized lion zord in Jayden's hand. As Jayden turned to greet the older Ranger, the lion ran up Jayden's arm and over his neck before settling comfortably on his shoulder.

"I'm not interrupting?" Jason asked, nodding to the lion zord.

"I never say no to good company," Jayden smiled.

Jason sat down on the deck beside him. "Everyone else is still asleep. You're watching the sunrise?"

"I've always loved this time of day," Jayden replied. "Everything's so peaceful and fresh. It helps me find my centre."

Jason looked up to the horizon in the distance. The sky was a deep crimson, streaked with pink and gold. "Red sky at night, sailor's delight," he said softly. "Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning."

"Where did you hear that?"

"On a sailing ship in the 1800s," Jason replied. He noticed the look on Jayden's face and shrugged. "Time travel. Long story."

Jayden laughed. "I feel like I have to ask. When you first got that Power Coin and imagined what your life would be like," he began, "did it ever end up the way you thought it would?"

Jason shook his head. "It actually ended up a lot better," he said, then leaned in close. "I'm sorry about yesterday. Taking over like that in the meeting before we left. It's an old habit, and it's hard to break."

"It's okay," Jayden replied. "Don't worry about it." He paused, and lowered his voice. "Do you think Serrator will make his move today?"

"Yeah, I think he will," Jason said. "If not today, then sometime soon. He's been waiting to do this for a long time. That means he's impatient, and hopefully _that_ means he'll start making mistakes."

"I just wish we had more leads than a robbery at a camera shop."

Jason remembered Tommy's advice last night in the dojo. "Maybe it wasn't the only theft though," he said.

"Ji only keeps track of Nighlok-related incidents," Jayden said. "We don't usually worry about the city's crime statistics."

"Someone would though, wouldn't they?"

Jayden turned to him. "The police!" he said. "They'd keep records of all the strange crimes in the city. But would they let us look? Those records would probably be confidential."

"We're two Red Rangers," Jason said. "We might as well ask."

Jayden jumped up so quickly the lion zord almost lost its balance. "You get your morpher, I'll go talk to Ji," he said, "then let's get going," and the two Rangers ran back inside.

* * *

Stumbling into the kitchen, Zac glanced around to see that everybody else had already had breakfast, the sink full of drying dishes. He was just making himself some eggs when Mike stepped into the room.

"Morning," Zac mumbled.

Mike grinned. "I'm so glad I'm not the only person who sleeps in," he said.

"What are you doing?"

"Just putting some breakfast out for the neighbourhood tabby," Mike replied, pouring some cat food into the bowl on the window sill. "He's kind of our unofficial house pet."

"Cool. And, hey, did I hear Jayden and Jason leaving earlier?"

"Yeah, they had an idea about the missing cameras," Mike replied. "They went into the city to check it out."

"Thanks," Zac nodded. Once he'd finished breakfast, he washed his plates up then headed back towards the room he was sharing with Tommy and Jason. But as he stepped past the dojo, he heard somebody inside. Carefully sliding the door open, he peeked in and saw Kevin practicing on the mats with his kendo training sword.

"Hey," the Black Ranger called, stepping inside.

Kevin glanced to him and frowned, clearly annoyed at the interruption.

Zac took no notice. "I can't help but notice you've spent like every spare minute of time training since we all got back," he said.

"We were caught by surprise," Kevin grunted. "There's no excuse. We should've been able to fight off those Nighloks. We need to be better!" And he violently laid into the training dummy with his sword. "I need to be better."

"Quick question," Zac began. "What do you do when you're not being a samurai?"

"There is nothing but this," Kevin replied, then finally looked up. "You wouldn't understand."

"I guess not," Zac said. "It's funny. Back in the day, I was Mike. The jokester. The guy who never took anything seriously. Zordon told me once that I had too much energy for the team. I actually remember this one adventure, where we met an old sage who told me that I lacked focus. He said that I needed to quit having fun and get serious. I didn't listen to him at the time, but do you know what I eventually figured out?"

"That he was right?" Kevin asked.

"Hell no!" Zac laughed. "Mystical old sage or not, the guy was an idiot. Look, you _have_ to be able to back off sometimes, otherwise you'll just burn out. After a while, you start to lose yourself in the suit. You become just the helmet, just the weapons. It takes over you until there's nothing left. I've seen Rangers get lost in themselves. It's a scary thing, and take it from me, it ain't easy to come back from."

Kevin's brow lowered. He lowered the sword. "So what did _you_ do?" the Blue Ranger asked.

"Enjoyed life," Zac replied. "Danced. Went to way too many college parties."

"And chased girls?" Kevin asked.

"Just the one," Zac said. "She was my high school sweet-heart. Smart, feisty, beautiful. She never let me get away with anything. I liked that. I found that the Ranger thing made dating complicated, but worth it."

"What happened?"

"She moved away for college," Zac replied. "Just about broke my heart. But she moved back to town a few years back, so, yeah. What about you?"

"Me? No, I… no. Emily and Mia are just good friends," Kevin replied. "Although…"

Zac smiled. "Ooh, our Blue Ranger has his secrets, eh? Go on."

"My swim partner a few years ago," Kevin nodded. "We grew up together. She was so graceful in the water. Smart, too. Sometimes I thought she might've felt the same way about me, but I never asked. Then she got a sports scholarship, and I had to come be a Samurai Ranger." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter anyway. I haven't thought about her since. Life moves on."

Zac heard the tone in Kevin's voice, and knew that last part wasn't true. "Well don't forget about her," he said. "All of this?" and he waved his hands around the dojo. "The big picture? It's important. But don't lose sight of the little picture, either. Because trust me, that is more important than you think."

Mia suddenly stepped into the dojo. "Zac! Kevin!" she said excitedly. "Jason and Jayden are back from the city! C'mon!"

Zac threw Kevin his towel. After wiping the sweat from his brow, Kevin followed Zac into the living room, to join the growing crowd of past and present Rangers gathering around the coffee table. Jason and Jayden were standing in the centre of the room, with a stack of papers and folders in their hands.

"So did you find anything at the police station?" Emily asked.

"Yes, were they able to assist us?" Ji added.

Jayden glanced to Jason, and Jason nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes," Jayden replied. "Check this out," and he slid a stack of papers onto the coffee table. "The police let us photocopy some of their most recent case reports."

"Wonders of the red suit," Jason said.

"It turns out Antonio's friend hasn't been the only camera-shop owner to call the police lately," Jayden continued. "Half a dozen electronics shops from all over the city have also been robbed in the last two weeks."

Everyone reached for the various police reports, glancing through them and passing them around to each other.

"Do you think Serrator was behind them all?" asked Kevin.

Jayden nodded. "If you read the statements, the only thing they have in common is that the buildings were sealed tight, and no alarms were triggered. There were no signs of forced entry, no smashed windows and no broken locks."

"But plenty of gaps in the walls and ceilings," Trini said.

"Exactly," Jayden said.

"So whatever Serrator's doing, he needs cameras and lots of them," Mike said.

"I just wish that told us how to stop him," Zac said.

Looking at two of the reports, Kimberly frowned. "Hey guys, look at this."

Tommy turned to her. "What?"

"I'm looking at the dates of the robberies," Kim said. "A couple of them were from this week, like, this one was yesterday. But look at this one. And this one. These were last week. That's a long time before Kori and Kaji invaded the house and kidnapped you guys."

"They were definitely impatient, then," Jayden said. "Ji, how many camera shops are there in the city?"

Ji stepped forward. "A few," he replied. "Hold on. With William and Trini's help, Antonio and I were able to add a holographic interface to our system." He pressed a button on the side of the coffee table, and the city map flickered across the surface. A second later, the buildings rose above the table to form a three-dimensional map of Panorama City. Everyone gasped, and ran their eyes over the display.

"Now," Ji continued, "if we set specific targets…" He continued typing, and the buildings collapsed down into the map, leaving only a dozen still standing. Looking over the police reports, Ji reached out to tap individual holograms. The ones he touched turned red. "That leaves us with all the stores that haven't been robbed yet."

"Hmm," said Antonio. "There's only four of them."

"Should we investigate?" asked Billy.

"Absolutely," Jayden replied, "just in case Serrator isn't finished shopping. At the very least, we should warn them."

Mia stepped over to Kevin. "Kevin and I can check out the one to the south of the city," she said.

"Billy and Trini," Jason began, "you guys check the one over here in the west."

"Jason and I will visit this one near the harbour," said Jayden.

"While Emily and I can visit this one in the city," Kimberly said, pointing to the only location left.

"And I think the rest of us should stay here and monitor the situation," Ji said.

"Okay Rangers," Jayden nodded. "Let's go."

* * *

"I confess brother," Kaji whispered into Kori's ear, "I'd be far more confident if we had the slightest idea what the hell he was doing."

Kori turned to the other side of the cavernous space as Serrator crawled around a labyrinth of metal scaffolding, carefully positioning the stolen cameras and aiming them towards the centre of the room. As they watched, the Nighlok king dropped to the ground then raised his arms in satisfaction.

"Yes, brilliant!" Serrator shouted. "Why thank you! It's masterful, award-winning, and the Oscar goes to…" he clicked his fingers, rerouting his train of thought mid-sentence. "Shazam! Nothing? Alakazam! Wingardium Leviosa! Let's rocket! No? Damn it." He stepped back, lost in his own world. "Where? Where? Where? It's on the tip of my tongue…"

Kori looked back to his brother. "He seems to know, at least."

"And who are we to doubt the genius of the Nighlok king?" Kaji asked.

"You forget brother, the plan almost worked until the other Rangers arrived," Kori said. "And once Serrator has done what he's promised to do…"

"We can send him to the bottom of the Sanzu and take it for ourselves?" Kaji asked.

"Not quite how I was going to put it," Kori frowned. "But everyone who's ever worked with Serrator has come off second best, haven't they? This may be a matter of simple self-preservation."

He looked back in time to see a red glow flickering from between two pieces of scaffolding. A second later, Serrator reappeared from a glowing gap in the wall two feet away from them.

"Boys?" Serrator asked cheerfully. "Plotting my downfall already?"

Kori glanced to his brother. Serrator must've heard their conversation. But he was standing there giddily, making no move to attack. They might as well be honest.

"Just pointing out the inevitability of your betrayal," Kori said. "Like you did to Deker and Dayu. Twice, as I recall."

"I do have an unfortunate habit of doing that, don't I?" Serrator asked. "No matter. We are Nighlok. There's no shame in that. If we weren't planning to overthrow each other, we'd almost be human." He gestured back to the array of cameras he'd arranged. "Still, I figured it out. I thought you'd like to see. It's rather brilliant, actually." Raising his hand, he clicked his fingers. "On!"

Power surged through the devices. They watched hundreds of small red lights flicker on in the shadows, as the cameras all switched on and began recording.

"Impressive," Kaji said. "But you've spent so much time with these human toys that you still haven't reforged your soul sword, or the two you promised us. You can understand our impatience."

Serrator spun to him in annoyance. "If this succeeds, we'll have no need for those trinkets anymore," he said. "Besides, it takes considerable time to repair shattered soul swords. Not to mention, a great deal of power. At the moment, I have none to spare."

"Just so long as we know where we stand," Kori said.

"Right here," the Nighlok king said. "And you're over there. Now, are we ready to destroy the legacy of the Power Rangers forever? We just lack one vital ingredient. Assemble the Moogers!"

"How many?" asked Kaji.

"That is an excellent question," Serrator began. "Two? Ten? A dozen and three-quarters? Hmm," and he grinned a horrible smile. "How about we start with _all_ of them and go from there? To arms, boys. It is a beautiful day to drown the world."

* * *

Panorama City was alive with the sounds of traffic and pedestrians that morning, as Kimberly and Emily made their way down the bustling street. But although nothing looked out of place, Kim didn't let that distract her for a second. She'd done this far too long. As they reached an intersection and waited for the lights to change, Kimberly tapped Emily on the arm and pointed to a large multi-storey shopping centre down the street.

"The camera place is on the ground level," Kimberly said.

"Do you think we'll run into trouble?" Emily asked.

"Even if we do, nobody knows shopping malls like yours truly," Kim replied. "We'll be fine."

The lights changed, and they joined the crowd of pedestrians crossing the street. But as they stepped up onto the pavement, music began to reach them over the noise of the crowd. Aware that she was now standing by herself, Kim turned to see a street busker over by the entrance to a nearby café. The young woman had short dark hair and bright clothes, and was entertaining the crowd with her guitar. The case open in front of her contained a small fortune in loose change.

Kim watched as Emily ducked over, dropped a handful of coins into the guitar case and then returned.

"She's really good," Emily said. "That's one of my favourite songs."

Kim looked to the younger Ranger as they continued down the street. "You know music? That's great," she said. "What instruments do you play?"

"A few," Emily said. "I'm not really a musician, but there's not much TV back on the farm and I never had the time for books, so I taught myself how to play music."

Kimberly laughed, and Emily turned to her. "What?"

"Nothing," Kim said. "You just remind me a lot of myself when I was your age. Which was a long time ago and now I feel really old, so let's not talk about that any more."

"Really?" Emily asked. "I don't see it. You guys are so strong and confident all the time, and I'm, well, me. I was never even meant to be a Ranger."

"You weren't?"

"No. My older sister Serena was meant to be here as the Yellow Ranger. She's the same age as Jayden. She probably would've had a lot more in common with him." Emily's voice faded away, and when she continued, Kimberly heard a tone in her voice that hadn't been there before. "When I was growing up, everybody always told me how great Serena was, that she was gonna be such a wonderful Samurai Ranger one day. It's all I ever heard."

Kimberly frowned, realising what Emily was telling her. "I guess it would've been hard living up to her example," Kim said.

"It didn't matter," Emily said. "When she got sick, I had to come in her place anyway. But I'd trained a lot. I knew what I was getting into."

"Was it hard to adjust?"

"Harder than I thought," Emily replied. "It seemed so much easier for the others. I wish I had Kevin's dedication or Jayden's courage or Mia's strength. Or Mike's sense of humour. He's just so funny."

Kimberly laughed. "I happen to know a little something about charming Green Rangers," she began. "I remember when I was just starting out my gymnastics, I used to watch the Olympics. I thought the gymnasts were so talented, and that I'd never be as good as them. You know what I'd forgotten?"

"What?"

"That they'd all had decades of practice," Kim said. "That's the thing about being a Ranger. There are so few of us that actually have morphers, you have to trust that you're exactly where you're supposed to be. Zordon trusted me with the Pterodactyl Power Coin, and your sister trusted you with the Yellow Ranger's samuraiser. Sure, we make a few mistakes. But we also do a whole heap of good, and I think that's the important part."

"You make it sound so easy."

"Well I think you shouldn't worry so much about trying to be more like Jayden or Mia," Kimberly continued. "The team already has a Jayden and a Mia. I think you should be more like Emily. Because she's fun and I like her. You're stronger than you think you are. I promise."

Emily smiled, about to reply when she glanced to the garden in front of a small office block they were passing. She froze, and her expression fell.

Kimberly came to a stop beside her. "What's wrong?"

Emily nodded to the shadows under a tall fig tree. "It's mid-morning, right?"

"Yeah?"

"So where's that red light coming from?"

Kimberly gazed around the shadows of the garden, and realised the gaps were glowing an eerie crimson. "Oh no," she said.

Moogers suddenly began spilling forth from the gaps between drains, plants, doors and cracks in the pavement. Dozens of them poured out onto the street, tripping over themselves in a mad rush as they climbed to their feet. Behind them, pedestrians and commuters screamed at the flood of demons and fled, running out onto the road in a blind panic. Drivers slammed on their brakes, and the street was soon filled with the noise of cars smashing into each other. All the while, more and more Moogers were tumbling out into the surface world, the growing crowd forcing Kimberly and Emily back to back.

Seeing the two Rangers, the demons murmured in angry recognition. Raising their swords, they closed in.

Kimberly glanced to Emily. "Let's do it!"

"Right!" Emily nodded. Reaching into her jacket, she summoned her spin sword with a thought and charged into the crowd of demons, slashing her blade for the creatures and sending two of them back in a shower of sparks. A sword flashed towards her – she blocked the weapon and struck it away, before swinging low and taking the Mooger's legs out from under it. Two more opponents aimed their swords high, but Emily ducked under the blades and retaliated with a powerful slice, forcing the beasts back. Without slowing down, she turned to face her remaining enemies. Taking no more chances, they attacked in a mad rush, but Emily raised her spin sword and kept their blades in check. Parrying the swords, she spun around with a wide horizontal slash, sending the entire crowd crashing back.

Behind her, Kimberly had leaped forward with a high kick, launching one of the creatures back. Finding her footing, she ducked low under a wild slice, turned to catch the creature's arm and struck the demon away with a blow to the stomach. She heard the whistle of two descending blades and stepped between them, grabbing the Moogers while they were off-balance and throwing them into each other. Spinning under another sword, she aimed a powerful roundhouse kick that sent another couple flying backwards. Blocking a punch from one of the two remaining Moogers, she sent him to the ground with a low kick. She turned to face the final Mooger, and he dropped his sword and ran for his life.

The two Rangers regrouped, Emily holding her blade high as Kimberly pulled her hair into a ponytail. Up and down the street, screaming pedestrians were fleeing the hordes of the demons in hot pursuit.

"They're chasing the civilians?" Emily asked. "They're not going after the camera shop?"

"And they're not coming after us, either," Kim said. "C'mon, over there!" and she pointed to a nearby alleyway between two towering buildings. They raced over into the shadows and quickly saw the laneway was deserted.

"It's morphin' time!" Kim shouted.

"Go go Samurai!"

"Pterodactyl!"

In a storm of pink and yellow light, the Pink and Yellow Rangers raced out onto the street. On all sides, people were trapped and cornered by the crowds of demons. Even as they watched, a young couple across the road were being dragged over the bitumen towards a glowing gap by several of the Nighlok demons.

"What are they doing?" asked Emily.

"It doesn't matter," Kim replied. "Go!"

The Rangers raced into the fray, grabbing the Moogers and throwing them away from the young man and woman before continuing down the street, flattening every demon they passed. Racing into an office block, Kimberly grabbed the two demons attacking the front desk staff and launched them out through the windows in a shower of glass before racing back outside. Across the street, Emily rescued a family surrounded by the creatures, kicking the Moogers away before directing the people to safety. But as Kim joined Emily in the middle of the street, they glanced around and realised they were losing ground.

"Earth Slicer!"

"Power Bow!"

With two flashes of light, the Rangers were holding their weapons. Slicing her way through the crowd of Moogers, Emily leaped up onto the roof of an abandoned car and gazed down over a crowd of people surrounded by the demons. With only a second to aim, she launched the yellow slicer towards them. The weapon sliced through the air, striking every Mooger on the chest before whirring back towards her where she grabbed it out of the air. A few feet away, Kim turned to a half dozen Moogers closing in on a woman with two young children. Aiming her Power Bow, she sent a barrage of arrows whistling towards the demons, slamming into them and launching them off their feet. Kicking two more Moogers out of the way, she spun towards the pavement opposite – twenty Moogers were marching a crowd of captured civilians towards a glowing gap between a stop sign and a traffic light.

With no clear shot, Kimberly raised her bow and pulled the string back. Twenty glowing arrows appeared in the weapon, shining so brightly they hurt to look at.

"Don't miss," Kimberly whispered, and fired. The arrows whistled through the air, zigzagging through the crowd of moving targets and dropping every single Mooger in a shower of sparks, leaving the surprised crowd of hostages suddenly free.

"Go!" the Pink Ranger shouted. "Run!"

By now, the few remaining Moogers had figured out they were in a losing battle. Abandoning the hostages, the Nighlok ran, dived and tumbled into any nearby cracks. As the rest of the citizens fled to safety, Kimberly and Emily regrouped in the middle of the deserted road.

"What was that about?" Kim asked, as the last of the Moogers vanished.

"I have no idea! They usually just attack _us_."

"Are you two all right?" came a familiar voice, and the girls turned to see two Red Rangers jogging towards them. "Kim, that was a fantastic shot," Jason continued.

"We're fine," Kim replied. "I think we fought them all off."

Emily saw the boys were both holding their swords. "Were you guys attacked too?" she asked.

"Not us, civilians," Jayden replied. "We heard Mia and Kevin fighting as well."

"Ji just called," Jason added, tapping his communicator. "Gap sensors went wild all over the city."

"I'd say this was Serrator making his move," Emily said.

"You're right," Jayden agreed. "Let's get back to the house."

* * *

"It was all over the city, all at once," Ji said, pointing to the map on the coffee table as the two teams of Rangers gathered around him. "One single strike against more than a dozen targets right across Panorama City. Serrator must've used every Mooger he had. Even with an army of Rangers, we wouldn't have stopped them. Not all of them, at any rate."

"How many people did they take?" Kevin asked.

"I've been monitoring the police frequencies ever since you left," Ji replied. He paused, and the Rangers knew from the look on his face that bad news was coming. "At last count, more than five hundred people. Men, women and children. They didn't discriminate; they just grabbed everyone they could."

An awful silence followed as the Rangers gazed around to each other. "Aw man," Tommy breathed. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"First the theft of cameras," Billy began, "and now five hundred hostages. What does it mean?"

Trini turned to the Red Samurai Ranger. "What did you say yesterday?" she asked. "One single great spike of despair would be enough to tear open the dimensional boundaries and flood the city?"

"That monster!" Mia shouted. "He's going to use the hostages to do it, isn't he?"

Emily glanced over to the case files sitting on the kitchen counter. "Um, guys?" she asked.

Zac turned to Mia. "Probably," he said. "But I don't get the cameras. Why does he want to film anything?"

Emily tapped Jayden on the shoulder. "Guys?"

"We have to rescue them," Antonio nodded. "But where would Serrator take them? They obviously can't go back to the castle."

"_Guys!_" Emily shouted.

Everyone turned to Emily. With every eye on her, Emily blinked, but rallied and continued. "What if we got this all wrong?" she asked. "What if this was always about us? Look at the dates of the robberies. Serrator was doing this _long_ before he captured us. He didn't just want us out of the way. He captured us for a reason. Don't you guys see? We were always meant to be part of this!"

"Of course," Kevin said. "Emily, that's brilliant. How else do you make people lose all hope? You destroy their heroes right in front of them."

"But it wouldn't have been enough just to have a few people watch, would it?" Mike asked.

"Negative," Billy said. "So Serrator stole the cameras to broadcast the footage to thousands, possibly millions, of people. That would be all the despair they'd need."

"But the plan failed," Jayden added. "Mike and the other Rangers rescued us and destroyed their stronghold."

Kim turned to him. "But the plan was still doable," she said. "They're just going to use the people of Panorama City this time."

"And seeing two full teams of Rangers fail to save the day would be more than enough to cause that spike in despair," Zac nodded.

Jason looked around. "But if Serrator needs to be able to transmit the footage…"

"On it!" said Ji, and immediately began typing. Once again, the three-dimensional holograph of the city rose before them. This time, he pressed a button and all but four buildings sank into the grid.

"These are the studios of the major television stations in the city," Ji began. "Wherever Serrator is, he's in one of those."

"Which building has the largest broadcasting tower on the roof?" Billy asked.

Ji pointed. "This one, for channel seven," he replied.

"If his plan needs an audience," Trini said, "that's where he'll be."

"What about the hostages?" Mia asked.

"Serrator would be keeping them close," Jason replied.

"I agree," Jayden said. "He wouldn't want to risk anything going wrong."

"Then we need to move," Tommy said.

"Good luck Rangers," Ji nodded. "Go save the world."

Everyone stepped away from the table. Jayden turned to Jason. "This one's all yours," he said.

Jason nodded. As one, the twelve heroes reached for their pockets.

"It's morphin' time!"

_To be continued._


	9. Chapter 8

_Author's notes - and, fight! Thanks for sticking with me, everybody. This is where things get awesome. There's a scene with Mike and Tommy, here, that's one of the most awesome Power Ranger scenes I've ever written. Yo__u'll know it when you get to it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!_

_Whitebeard - you know, Ninjor showing up would've been cool (and fitting, given that he's a ninja master and Samurai was a series about Japanese folklore), but no, this close to the end, I promise there won't be any more surprise appearances. From here on in, this is about the MMPR and PRS teams, separated by generations but standing side-by-side. I think you'll like it anyway :). Jokermask - thank you :). The fun of a big Ranger team-up is everybody fighting together, but when the Samurai Rangers came back on-stage, I really enjoyed giving all the characters their own separate subplots, which they work through together as the story unfolds. Mike shows Tommy that people actually looked up to the Green Ranger, Antonio helps Billy and Trini figure out their time-management problems, and Kim takes the girls under her wing and helps them be a little more confident (I really hoped Mia's storyline on the show would go that way. You know, she knows she's a terrible cook, but she's from a family of high achievers, and she has that great pressure on her. Twice, now, Kimberly has told Mia, "You're the hurricane" to inspire her. Watch that pay _huge _dividends here, in the big fight chapter). Zac and Kevin were such polar opposites that putting them together, I thought, was a great idea. Anyway, on with the story :)._

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

Serrator stepped onto the roof of the television station and swept his gaze out over the view. Twenty storeys above the street, he could see from the hazy mountains on the horizon all the way to the endless blue of the Pacific Ocean.

With the Tenki brothers standing guard behind him, Serrator rested his hands on the railing. Everywhere he looked, life was unchecked and out-of-control. People on the street were scurrying to appointments, drones in suits were going to work or cutting deals, while children buzzed around playgrounds with noisy abandon. Over the noise of the traffic, he could hear birds in the air high above his head, with the crashing ocean in the distance.

_Disgusting_.

The Nighlok king turned to the giant broadcasting tower behind him. "Humans," Serrator murmured, so softly that Kori and Kaji had to strain to hear him. "Humans and their technology. The old ways are never good enough. They need machines to do so much for them. But why don't we learn from that? Why not be inspired by it? For all its strengths, tradition just isn't efficient enough." With a toothy smile, Serrator turned back to the Tenki brothers as if suddenly remembering they were there. "I have a world to destroy, you see. And I am on a schedule."

Serrator raised his arms and arcs of lightning crackled from his hands, dancing from the rooftop up into the tower. With a screech of protesting metal, the broadcasting tower began twisting and warping, the metal structure transforming before their eyes. In a few seconds, the tower had grown jagged fangs and spikes, now twice as tall as before.

"Will we reach the rest of the state with this?" Kaji asked.

"My boy," chortled Serrator. "We should reach the rest of the planet!"

"Serrator," called Kori over by the railing. He pointed to the sky. "We have Rangers incoming."

The three Nighlok turned to see twelve streaks of lightning heading straight towards them.

Serrator frowned. "That's earlier than expected, but not to worry," he said. "Let's go give the world something to watch."

* * *

In a flash of light, the twelve Power Rangers materialised in a line across the street, a hundred metres away from the television station. The office building looked deserted, empty thanks to the Mooger attacks earlier in the day, while the actual studio immediately before them looked similarly abandoned.

Trini glanced around. "Do you guys feel that?"

"Yeah," Mike said. "It's getting hotter."

"Look!" shouted Antonio. Everyone turned to see what he'd noticed, and saw him pointing down to the gutter. Red water was seeping through the drain, spilling forth onto the street.

"Despair is rising," Jayden said. "The Sanzu River is breaking through. We're out of time."

"What's the plan?" asked Billy.

"The hostages will be inside the building," Jayden nodded. "More than five hundred. They'll probably be guarded by hundreds of Moogers. We fight our way through the army, rescue the civilians and then deal with Serrator."

"Sounds good," Mia nodded.

"Tommy, make an entrance," Jason said.

The older Green Ranger nodded. Stepping towards the garage door blocking the entrance to the studio, Tommy reached for his Dragon Dagger. Charging the blade with power, he slashed it towards the door, immediately blasting it open in a cloud of smoke and debris. With the way clear, the Rangers charged inside, ready for battle…

… to see nothing.

The studio was empty.

The only figures staring back at them were Serrator and the Tenki brothers. In the shadows on either side of the door, though, the Rangers spotted thousands of cameras. Every one of them was recording.

Gazing around in disbelief, Jason's heart sank. "There's nobody here," he murmured. "We guessed wrong."

Jayden turned to him. "If the hostages aren't here, then where are they?"

"That is the question!" Serrator shouted gleefully.

Jayden raised his sword. "Tell us where those people are!"

Serrator stepped forward, a predatory grin on his face. "How does it feel to be totally powerless?" he asked, and then giggled. "There are five hundred people about to _die_, Rangers, and there is nothing whatsoever you can do to stop it." He stepped closer. "I'll give you a hint because I'm feeling charitable. They're somewhere in the city. Will that do?"

"Guys, what do we do now?" asked Mike. "We gotta find them."

"Do you see?" shouted Serrator, and the Rangers saw he was addressing the cameras directly. "Are you watching closely? Your heroes, two of your greatest teams of champions, have been totally outplayed. They've failed utterly. Pay attention, there will be a test! And I promise you'll all fail. Moogers?" A crack in the wall glowed red, and several of the Nighlok foot soldiers poked their heads through. "_Burn them_."

"No!" shouted Mia. "You tell us where the hostages are or…!"

"Or you'll do what?" Serrator interrupted. "You think I'd ever tell you? It's already too late Rangers! Can you feel that despair building? It's such a sweet fragrance," and he grinned horribly. "You lose, Rangers. You lose forever, and your legacy ends today. Kori! Kaji! Keep the heroes busy. I'll protect the tower," and Serrator stepped back and vanished through a crack in the ground.

Kaji and Kori stepped forward as the Rangers backed away. With no ideas, Jayden glanced to Jason then to the Rangers behind him.

_Trust the team_.

"Guys!" Jayden shouted, pointing at Zac, Billy, Antonio and Kevin, the four Rangers closest to the door. "Run! Go find the hostages!"

The four Rangers raced outside. Kori chased after them, but Mike and Tommy stepped in front of him and blocked his path.

"Hey Frosty," Mike said. "Let's dance."

Kori growled and chased the two Green Rangers outside.

Jason, Jayden, Kim, Trini, Emily and Mia stood together as Kaji closed in, but Kimberly and Trini stepped forward. "Go after Serrator!" Kim shouted, looking back to Jayden and Jason. "We got this."

Jason nodded. As Jayden grabbed his arm, Jason reached for his communicator. "Going up," Jason said, and they vanished in two bright flashes of red.

* * *

In the living room of the Shiba house, Ji gazed in horror as the screen in front of him flickered and twisted. He flicked open his samurai phone to find the tiny screen changing as well. As the image came into focus, his face fell.

"Rangers!" he shouted, "he's done it! Serrator is broadcasting onto every screen! Televisions, computers and phones, it's everywhere! The captured people are in metal cages somewhere, like the ones they kept us in. It's somewhere dark and huge. I can't see anything else. But there's Moogers, lots of them," and his voice faded away. "Rangers, the Moogers have burning torches."

The alarm began blaring, and Ji fought for a second to get the coffee table screen back to normal. "The Sanzu River is bursting onto the street. Rangers, whatever the plan is, you need to do it fast!"

* * *

Outside the television studio, Kevin held his phone close. "We got all that Ji," he said, and he looked to the other Rangers. "How do we stop this?"

"Can you find them from your end?" Antonio asked.

"Gap sensors have mostly been quiet since this morning," came Ji's reply. "I'm looking at the map now. There was no pattern to any of it. And none of the locations match up. The gap sensors this morning only triggered in public spaces. Streets and parks and places like that. "

"Wait a second," Antonio said, "if they've turned the cameras on, can we trace the broadcasting frequency? You know, triangulate the signal?"

"I just tried!" Ji replied. "If they were using normal frequencies, we could. But Serrator must be using his magic. I can't trace it at all."

"Guys we're running out of time!" Zac shouted. The puddles of water along the street were growing. "We need to do something!"

"This is impossible," Antonio murmured. "Dios nos ayude."

Billy looked to Antonio. "Impossible," he repeated. "Of course. This is an impossible goal."

"People are dying!" Kevin shouted. "Speak English!"

"Serrator set this trap deliberately so that we'd fail," Billy replied. "He wouldn't have moved the hostages around using the system he knows you can follow." He paused as realisation dawned. "He used a portal, just like he used to get into the Shiba house. Ji, is my laptop still there on the kitchen counter?"

"Yes!"

"Switch it on," Billy said tersely. "The program I used to link the portals should still be there on the desktop. Look for heat signals back a few hours."

Precious seconds ticked by. "I've got some but they're faint," Ji replied.

"Adjust the temperature variables," Billy said.

There was another long pause. "I've got it! There were massive signals coming from an old warehouse downtown! I'll send you the coordinates now!"

"All right!" shouted Antonio. "Let's go!" Kevin and Antonio grabbed the arms of the two older Rangers and they teleported away.

* * *

Inside the studio, Kaji spun around as Kimberly, Trini, Emily and Mia closed in around him. As the Samurai Rangers warily raised their spin swords, the ancient Nighlok turned to face the younger of the two Pink Rangers.

"You're pathetic," he growled. "We crept into your house and destroyed it just because we could. What chance do you think the four of you stand?"

Mia stepped forward. "Newsflash," she said. "Our house is still standing and so are we. You didn't destroy our home and you will _never_ destroy us. _Take him down!_"

Kaji roared, spitting fire and smoke. With his fists blazing, he charged forward. Mia somersaulted backwards to safety as Kaji slammed his fists into the floor where she'd been standing. He spun around as Kimberly and Trini closed in, Kim aiming a low chop with Trini kicking high. Kaji blocked the blow from Kim and ducked under Trini's boot. He smashed his fists together and forced Kim back with a blast of flame, before aiming a powerful punch for Trini. The Yellow Ranger dodged his fist and aimed a lightning-fast strike for his neck, but Kaji stepped around the blow and struck Trini away with a blow to the stomach. Before he could follow after her, Kim slammed her heel into the demon's jaw, rocking his head sidewards. But he remained unfazed, batting away another kick before slamming Kimberly back.

Even as Kim rolled to her feet, Mia and Emily raced forward, slashing with their spin swords. The demon leaped up and over the blades before launching himself forward with his fists raised, striking their swords away and swinging wildly for his opponents. Emily dodged Kaji's fist while Mia stepped around the move and slashed her sword for Kaji's head – he ducked the blow and stepped back to avoid a second, but with his attention on Mia, Emily slashed forward, carving her blade through the demon's armour. Kaji froze and Mia aimed a high kick, slamming her boot into Kaji's head. The demon recovered fast, striking out as Mia landed and sending her crashing. He turned to Emily as her sword fell towards him, catching the blade with his hand and launching her backwards with a powerful backhand.

The Rangers regrouped as Kimberly helped Emily to her feet.

"That went well," Kaji sneered. "What's your next plan?"

"To fight on our terms," Kimberly said, and the four Rangers raised their hands.

"Power Bow!"

"Power Daggers!"

"Earth Slicer!"

"Wind Fan!"

The demon shielded his eyes at the four flashes of light. When he turned back to his opponents, the Rangers were all holding their weapons.

With a predatory roar, Kaji lowered his head and charged, shaking the building as he ran. But before he'd reached them, Emily flicked the earth slicer towards him, slicing the weapon through the air and catching the demon on the chest in a shower of sparks, spinning him off his feet. He rolled to a stop and stood up as Trini launched her daggers straight for him. The weapons struck like solid lightning, throwing the Nighlok back in a blaze of fire and sparks. Coughing and spluttering, he stumbled out of the smoke cloud as Kimberly dropped down before him. He lashed out for the Pink Ranger, but Kim blocked his arm with her bow, striking his hand away before aiming the weapon for the demon's chest and firing. The blast slammed Kaji back, where he crashed to the ground and rolled to a stop. He looked up as Mia approached, and slammed his fist into the ground.

"You are all of you useless!" he shouted.

Mia shook her head. "No," she said calmly. "_I'm the hurricane_," and she swung her wind fan towards him.

Gale force winds slammed into the demon, lifting him off his feet and smashing him up through the ceiling. Carrying him over the road, the wind slammed him into the building opposite so hard the entire building shook. As Kaji fell, a second blast smashed him into the walls of the television station, before a third gust grabbed him and threw him back down onto the road. The whole street shook as he landed. Dazed and injured, Kaji staggered out of the pile of rubble.

The four Rangers raced out of the building after him.

"You cannot stop us!" the demon hissed.

"Let's prove him wrong!" Emily shouted.

Kimberly aimed her bow and the whole street erupted in sparks and smoke. Before the demon had time to recover, Trini took to the air, smashing her boot into the demon's head and sending him crashing backwards. Fighting to defend himself against the assault, Kaji threw his hands wide and his fists were soon blazing bright. As Mia approached, he swung a wild punch for her, but the Pink Samurai Ranger blocked the blow with her fan and slammed him back with a kick to the chest. Even as he fell, Emily spun the earth slicer towards him, the weapon striking the Nighlok and throwing him into a wall.

As Kaji picked himself up, the four Rangers closed in. With a flash of light, Emily and Mia were holding their spin swords. Side-by-side, the Yellow and Pink Samurai Rangers raised the glowing blades.

"Double Samurai Strike!" they shouted, and slashed the weapons towards him. The arcs sliced through the air, slamming into Kaji and instantly destroying him in a massive explosion that rocked the street and sent a plume of smoke roaring skyward. Emily and Mia turned to each other with a high five as Trini and Kim ran forward to join them.

"Good work," Kim said.

"Yeah, one down," Emily grinned. "We did it!"

* * *

Kevin, Antonio, Billy and Zac materialised in front of the old warehouse in four flashes of light. The building loomed over them, easily half a city block long. Decades ago it might've been a tannery or a packing factory. The walls were solid timber, and the doors and windows on all sides looked to have been boarded up from the inside. There was no way in.

"Are we sure this is the place?" Antonio asked, glancing to his team-mates.

Billy looked up to the roof. There was a ventilation pipe further along the building. As he watched, curls of black smoke were just starting to rise from it.

"Affirmative," the Blue Ranger replied. "Go!"

As one, the Rangers charged. Zac spun his hands around him and summoned his Power Axe with a thought. Taking aim at the wall, he pulled the trigger and blasted a hole in the side of the building. Racing inside, the four Rangers immediately skidded to a stop.

The warehouse was cavernous, stretching back into darkness as far as they could see. All around were the stolen cameras, attached to tripods, scaffolding and the walls. But in the centre of the factory was a line of cages similar to the ones that had held the Samurai Rangers at Castle Inabikari. There were dozens of them, though, and every one of them was holding at least ten of the captured citizens. Men, women, elderly residents, teenagers and young children were all crying out for help or fighting to somehow get free.  
Between the Rangers and the hostages was a crowd of dozens of Moogers.

Billy summoned his Power Lance with a thought, but as the Rangers stepped forward, Kevin held up his hand and pointed. On the far side of the warehouse, Moogers with burning torches had just lit the building on fire. One of the walls was already burning, and the fire had just taken hold of the ceiling above them. Seeing the four Rangers, the crowds of people spun to face the heroes. Recovering from their initial surprise, the Moogers raised their swords and closed in.

"Antonio, you possess great speed?" Billy asked.

The Gold Ranger nodded. "I, uh, I guess…"

"Your sheath slash technique!" the Blue Ranger explained. "Jayden told us all about it. You need to get everybody out of here as fast as you can. We'll keep the Moogers occupied. Kevin, you're a water elemental. The fire's all yours."

"Are you sure?" Antonio said, gesturing to the Moogers. "There's gotta be at least a hundred of them!"

"I know," Zac nodded. "They should've sent more. Go!"

Antonio and Kevin dashed away behind them, and Billy and Zac raised their Power Weapons and thundered towards the wall of Nighlok soldiers. As they approached, Zac swung his axe wildly, carving it through the crowd and sending Moogers flying with every step. A few feet away, Billy followed the lead of the Black Ranger, spinning his Power Lance above his head to block descending swords before sweeping the weapon in wide arcs to send the beasts crashing away from him.

As the older Rangers continued fighting, Antonio raced towards the nearest cage. There were a dozen people trapped within, mostly young men and women. Seeing the Gold Ranger, they surged towards him. He glanced down the line of cells and then to the fire rapidly taking hold of the building.

"Okay," the Gold Ranger nodded, and reached for his Barracuda Blade. He'd never pushed his powers this far before, but knew they didn't have any other options. "Time for a gold rush," and taking a deep breath, Antonio raced down the line of cages as nothing more than a golden blur. Faster than anybody could follow, he slashed his blade for every cell door he passed, leaving a trail of smashed locks and open cages behind him. Reaching the end of the building, he leaped around to the other corridor and continued back towards the front.

With his heart pounding in his chest, he came to a stop. His lungs were screaming for oxygen. Seeing spots, Antonio blinked and turned back to the cages. All the cells were open, and the hostages were surging out towards him. He hadn't missed a single one.

An elderly man with two young children beside him pointed to the battle taking place in the front of the building.

"There's no way out!" he shouted.

Barely conscious, Antonio nodded. "Then we make one," he murmured, and charging the Barracuda Blade with power, he slashed at the nearest wall. The blast sliced through the timber, and sunlight streamed into the building. "Go! Get to safety! Run!" the Gold Ranger shouted. The crowd of rescued civilians didn't need to be told twice, fleeing towards the entrance and soon escaping outside.

Across the warehouse, Kevin raised his spin sword as Kanji symbols spun around him.

"Spin sword," he began, "dragon splash!" He slashed the weapon for the burning wall, sending a wave of water over the fire. But the heat was so intense that half of the wave had dissipated before reaching it. The water dampened a small section of the wall but otherwise had no effect, and the fire continued unabated. It was getting harder and harder to see through the smoke.

"That didn't work," Kevin said, and looked around. Shutting his eyes, he zoned out the battle raging around him, and concentrated.

Billy struck away a Mooger. "I realise meditation is effective," he began, "but I'm unsure that now is…"

"Trust him," Zac called. "He knows what he's doing."

Controlling his breathing, Kevin focussed on his element. There was not a drop of water in the building, but he felt the water mains about ten feet below ground. "That'll do," he murmured. Reaching for his samurai morpher, he drew a symbol in the air. With a flick of the wrist, the symbol flashed down into the ground.

"What was that?" Zac asked.

Kevin turned to him. "The symbol for erupt," he said.

The ground started shaking, and everyone looked around in alarm as a torrent of water ripped through the floor and burst into the building, dousing the burning walls and immediately extinguishing the raging fire. With the walls and ceiling now smouldering, Kevin glanced back to his team-mates. The hostages had all been freed, and Zac and Billy were mostly done with the Moogers. Another symbol resealed the pipes below, and with the deluge over, Kevin raised his spin sword and leaped over to finish off the remaining Nighlok.

* * *

On the street outside the television studio, Mike and Tommy stood their ground as Kori approached. Taking slow, deliberate steps, the demon couldn't help but grin a predatory canine smile beneath his helmet as he closed the distance between himself and the two Green Rangers.

"The boy and the turncoat," he said with a cruel chuckle. "You," and he turned to face Mike. "Your friends think you're young and stupid, and have no place fighting by their sides. Have they never told you? Seems almost cruel. And _you_," Kori continued, looking to Tommy. "The evil Green Ranger, still fighting for the people who despise you. Your friends say you belong on the team with them, but are you sure they've really forgiven you? You are both so totally, hopelessly alone, and you don't even realise it. It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic."

There was a second of silence, broken only by the sounds of battle from inside the studio. "Mike?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did you listen to any of that?"

Mike shook his head. "Nope."

"Me neither."

With that, the two Green Rangers charged towards Kori. The Nighlok raised his fists and unleashed a barrage of icy-cold blasts straight for his opponents. Mike leaped up and over a blast as the ground erupted behind him, while Tommy dived to safety, rolling to his feet and continuing. Stepping back in surprise, Kori rallied and punched the air. Blasts of intense cold exploded around Tommy, driving the air from his lungs, but without slowing down, he lowered his head and forced himself to keep moving. Turning back to Mike, Kori blasted the street under his own feet, sending a plume of debris into the air. He kicked a piece of rubble towards Mike, but the Green Samurai Ranger leaped up, summoned his forest spear and shattered the piece of concrete in midair.

Then it was too late, and Tommy leaped down in front of Kori and kicked high, sending the demon stumbling. Kori found his footing and charged forward like an avalanche, but Mike was there, blocking the demon's arm with his spear before a low swipe forced Kori back. Tommy pressed forward with a high punch, and Kori blocked the blow but couldn't avoid a sharp left hook that rattled him. He heard Mike's forest spear whistling through the air and jumped instinctively as the blade passed under his boots. Before Mike could swing again, Kori raised his fist and blasted the Green Samurai Ranger away. Turning to Tommy, Kori struck away a low kick and landed a powerful blow that launched the Green Ranger off his feet, where he crashed through a bus-stop and collapsed to the ground in a tangle of wreckage and debris.

With one adversary down, Kori looked back to Mike. Catching his breath, the Green Samurai Ranger slowly picked himself up off the street. With a cruel smile, Kori held his hands together, and began building a powerful blast between his fingertips.

Crawling out of the wreckage, Tommy looked from Kori to Mike, and his eyes flew wide.

"Mike!" he shouted. Reacting instinctively, he grabbed the Dragon Dagger and threw it straight for the younger Ranger. In the same second, Kori aimed his blast for Mike as well, and the entire street lit up in sparks and fire. Tommy shielded his eyes from the blast and even Kori stumbled back in the face of the onslaught.

As the smoke cleared, Tommy and Kori turned back to look. Mike was standing there unharmed, in the middle of a crater in the centre of the street, with the golden Dragon Shield around his chest, gold bands around his gloves and boots and the Dragon Dagger held high.

"Whoa," Mike murmured.

Kori shook his head in disbelief. "No, that's… that's not possible," he stuttered.

"Hey Mike," Tommy called, and climbed to his feet. "How about you show him what a Green Ranger can do?"

Mike turned to face Kori. "It'd be my pleasure," the Green Samurai Ranger said. With that, Mike began marching determinedly towards the ancient Nighlok. Backing away from the approaching Ranger, Kori punched the air in desperation, sending half a dozen blasts whistling towards his opponent. At that range he couldn't have missed, but the blasts bounced harmlessly off Mike's chest, slamming into the ground as Mike continued forward without missing a step. Out of options and with Mike only a metre away, Kori aimed straight for Mike's chest, but the blast bounced back off the golden shield and threw the demon to the ground.

Dazed, Kori picked himself up off the ground, only to find Mike standing right in front of him. Kori lashed out with a wild punch, but Mike struck away his fist, landing a powerful blow to Kori's chest before a kick to the stomach sent him stumbling. Before Kori could recover, Mike charged after him, raining down blow after blow on the hapless Nighlok. Rattled by the onslaught, Kori ducked back and aimed a blast for Mike's chest, but the blast rebounded off the Dragon Shield and into the ground. The demon swung again, and Mike easily stepped around the move, striking away a second punch before spinning around and smashing his boot into Kori's jaw, sending the demon crashing.

Even as Kori fought to regain his footing, Mike raised the Dragon Dagger in one hand and his spin sword in the other, both blades glowing green with power.

"Good night Frosty," Mike said, and slashed the weapons for his opponent. The arcs scorched across the battleground and slammed into Kori, instantly tearing him apart in a fiery explosion. Mike stepped back and shielded his eyes as the fireball roared skyward and rained debris over the street.

Tommy stepped over to join him as Mike handed back the Dragon Dagger. In a flash of light, the shield transferred to Tommy.

"Dude," Mike began excitedly, "that was awesome!"

"You too man," Tommy smiled. "Awesome."

* * *

Reaching the rooftop, Serrator stepped out of the glowing gaps between a pair of rainwater pipes and ran towards the tower, only to come to a stop.

Two Red Rangers stood side-by-side before him.

"Serrator," Jayden said, taking a step forward. "This ends now!"

The Nighlok king laughed. "I concur," he said, and clicked his fingers. "Moogers! Tear them apart!"

The pipes behind Serrator glowed red, and a dozen Moogers spilled out onto the rooftop, swarming past him to surround the Red Rangers. Jason and Jayden spun back to back, raising their fists as the wall of demonic foot soldiers closed in.

"You ready?" asked Jason.

Jayden nodded. "I've been waiting ten years for this."

The Moogers attacked, leaping towards the two Rangers. Jason blocked a high punch, struck the Mooger away with a right hook before grabbing a second opponent and throwing him backwards. He spun on the spot as more closed in, kicking high and sending two more crashing. Jason dropped low as a sword flashed towards him, and before the Mooger could swing again, Jason caught his arm and spun him off his feet. Behind Jason, Jayden dodged a wild swing from one of the demons, forcing him back with a blow to the chest. A pair of the demons attacked together, swinging their blades low, but Jayden jumped back over the swords. One of the Moogers chased after him, and he grabbed the demon's arm and threw him away, before a high kick launched the second off his feet. The final Mooger before him charged, and Jayden easily caught the creature's arm and sent it crashing with a powerful punch. With nobody left facing them, Jason and Jayden turned to face an increasingly unravelling Serrator.

Jayden reached for his spin sword. "Your turn," he said.

"Fine," the Nighlok king growled. "I'll do this myself! It's a pity there's nobody around to watch," and he pulled twin blades out of his robes, and leaped towards the two Rangers.

Jason summoned his Power Sword with a thought, and the Rangers raised their blades to block Serrator's in a shower of sparks. Striking the weapons away, the Rangers attacked side-by-side, swinging high. Serrator dodged the blows, ducking under a slice from Jayden while parrying a wide swing from Jason. Pushing forward, the Nighlok king swung his blades low – Jason blocked the blades and aimed a wide strike for Serrator's chest. Serrator spun around the slice, but didn't get the opportunity to retaliate as Jayden sliced his own sword in a powerful vertical slash. The blade missed Serrator by millimetres, and when he lashed out again, Jason blocked the blade and kicked Serrator back.

Even as Serrator regained his footing, Jason raced forward, taking to the air and kicking high. Serrator spun to safety and slashed back for Jason, but Jayden blocked the blow and carved his sword along Serrator's chest. Serrator's body erupted in sparks and he staggered back, wounded. He shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears but the Rangers gave him no time to recover, Jason swinging high with Jayden aiming low. Serrator blocked both blades, but Jason struck Serrator's left wrist and the Nighlok's sword clattered to the ground. In desperation, Serrator swung his remaining blade for Jason, but Jason easily batted the sword away before Jayden sprang forward with a jump kick for Serrator's hand. The other blade fell to the ground and Jason kicked it away, and the two Rangers closed in on their enemy.

Their communicators suddenly chimed, and Jason raised his wrist. "Ji?"

"Jayden and Jason, they did it!" came Ji's voice. "The hostages have all been rescued! Everybody is accounted for."

"That's great news," Jason said.

Serrator's face fell. "No," he murmured.

Jayden smiled behind his helmet. "And the whole world was there to watch you fail," he said.

"It's more than that," Ji continued. "The Sanzu River is receding! The dimensional boundaries between the Earth and the netherworld are healing, a lot faster than before. I can't explain it."

"Impossible!" Serrator bellowed. "That's impossible!"

Jayden thought back to words he'd heard a long time ago. "That's not impossible, that's the Power Rangers," he said. "Give them something impossible to do then stand back and watch."

"Yeah," Jason added. "You wanted fear and despair? It turns out, that's not what the Power Rangers are about."

Serrator roared, and charged towards the Rangers in a blind rage.

"Fire smasher!" Jayden shouted. Spinning the giant blade above his head, he smashed the sword into Serrator and sent him flying backwards. Madly clambering to his feet, Serrator sent a barrage of fireballs whistling towards the two Rangers, but Jayden struck the fireballs away with the flat of his sword. Taking to the air, Jason flew towards Serrator with a powerful barrel kick, slamming Serrator back against the edge of the roof. Serrator desperately tried another blast, but the two Rangers had already closed the distance between them, and side-by-side, they kicked high, launching Serrator clean off the roof. With a startled cry, the Nighlok king toppled out of sight.

Jason pointed to the broadcasting tower. "It's all yours," he said.

Jayden nodded. Channelling fire into the sword, Jayden swung the fire smasher towards the tower, the arc from the sword smashing into the tower and instantly destroying it, leaving nothing more than a pile of twisted metal.

* * *

On the street below, Serrator picked himself up off the ground when there was a flash of red before him. He looked up to see two Red Rangers standing nearby.

"It's all over," Jayden said.

"Hey," came a voice, and Zac, Kevin, Billy and Antonio raced up towards their friends. "Serrator's still standing?" Zac continued.

"Not for long," Jason replied.

From the other side jogged Tommy and Mike, with Kim, Trini, Emily and Mia a few feet behind them. Gazing around the crowd of Rangers assembling before him, Serrator raised his fist in defiance. "You will not take this from me!" he shouted, sounding faintly unhinged. "I will flood your city and destroy the mortal realm!"

"I don't think so," Jayden said. He aimed the fire smasher towards Serrator as the other five Rangers loaded their Power Discs into the weapon. "Five disc strike!"

Beside them, the five Power Weapons merged into the Megablaster in a flash of light, and the two Ranger teams were standing side-by-side facing down the Nighlok king.

"Fire!" shouted Jason.

Jason and Jayden pulled the triggers, and the twin blasts exploded across the street and slammed into Serrator, instantly destroying him in a massive fireball that lit up the street. As the cloud of smoke began dissipating, the Rangers let out the breath they'd been holding and lowered their weapons.

Jason laughed softly. "We did it," he said. "Good work Rangers."

The Samurai Rangers glanced around the street. "Is he really gone?" Mia asked.

"Not quite yet!" came a booming voice, and everybody turned in the direction of the noise to see Serrator rise above them, fifteen storeys tall and rejuvenated. Even as they watched, Kori and Kaji soon joined him, the three Nighlok towering over the surrounding buildings. "Did you forget about one small detail?" Serrator continued, his voice echoing through the city.

Without wasting a second, the Samurai Rangers reached for their morphers. "Megamode power! Folding zords, arise!"

Jason turned to the Rangers behind him. "What do you say?"

Zac grinned beneath his helmet. "For old time's sake, eh?"

With that, the Rangers raised their arms to the sky.

"We need dinozord power, now!"

_To be continued._


	10. Chapter 9

_Author's notes - I couldn't let the occasion go without a giant robot fight. I love my giant robots :). Brankel - thanks for the compliments. Hold on tight, we're almost there! :). Jg13145 - Just about. Yes, Mike annihilating Kori while wearing the Dragon Shield was inspired by that photo of JDF's. I saw that picture, and just thought, __I _have_ to make this happen. The Dragon Shield was my favourite plot-device from the first season (in _Shades of Grey_, I've got a scene where Billy gets to wear it, and it's just as awesome). I love it when powers are transferable between teams (like when the Omega Megazord used the Lights of Orion in_ Trakeena's Revenge_)__, and we already know the Dragon Shield can be transferred between individual Rangers. I always write it as, anyone Tommy chooses to give the Dragon Dagger to, gets the shield as well. I'm glad you liked that. I thought it was a nice resolution to Mike and Tommy's subplots. As for your three notes ... thanks for pointing those out. I should've mentioned, in the last chapter, that some of the changes were deliberate. I found that the Samurai team had a lot of procedures and summoning phrases, and I watched a few episodes to try and get them right ... but including them all slowed the story right down. So I took some small liberties, and either shortened things or rearranged their order, just to keep the flow of the story. In _this_ chapt__er, you'll see I've taken a couple of the Samurai phrases and changed them slightly, to reflect that it's two teams fighting together, here, and not just the Samurai team. I also put Tommy into the cockpit of the Dragonzord, but that's just a personal preference. Anyway, this is the second last chapter, so thanks for your feedback everybody :). On with the zords!_

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

The Samurai Rangers held out their arms as their Megamode armour folded around their suits and their individual zords appeared in their hands. Lifting into the air, the zords grew gigantic while a cloud of Japanese symbols swirled around them. The red lion zord planted its feet on the street and roared, as the pink turtle and blue dragon took to the air. Below them, the green bear stomped the ground while the yellow ape swung up onto the nearby rooftops. A second later, the Samurai Rangers teleported into their cockpits and slid their swords into the control panels before them.

"Zords, combine!" said Jayden.

The five giant robots instantly began to transform. The dragon and bear zords collapsed down against each other until they'd formed the Megazord's feet and legs. The red lion leaped into the air, its front legs flattening against its sides as its body split in two and the halves swung apart. In the sky above, the turtle and ape zords folded in half, connecting to the lion zord as they descended onto the bear and dragon. Now formed, the Samurai Megazord reached up and pulled its helmet on, the strap connecting under the Megazord's chin. Its eyes flashed blue, and the Megazord's gleaming sword appeared in its hand. The five Rangers were suddenly standing together in the Megazord cockpit as the Samurai Megazord stood tall over the city.

Meanwhile, far to the west of the city in an out-of-the-way place, the ground shook violently and broke open. With a blast of flame and a roar of power, the mighty red Tyrannosaurus rose from the depths, awakening from a long slumber to greet the sun once again, immediately beginning its journey for the city in the distance. Behind it, the blue Triceratops appeared alongside the black Mastodon, joined seconds later by the yellow Sabre-Toothed Tiger. Finally, with an explosion of fire and smoke, the pink Pterodactyl zord shot into the sky, following close behind as the zords thundered towards the Rangers.

"Let's do it!" shouted Jason.

Reaching for their belts, the Rangers teleported into their approaching zords and materialised in the familiar cockpits a second later, each Ranger silently noting how good it felt to be back in their original steeds. Bypassing the traditional tank mode, the zords pulled straight into their Megazord sequence. The Triceratops and Sabre-Toothed Tiger drew side by side, collapsing down and connecting to the Tyrannozord's legs. With crackles of lightning, the Mastodon folded open and was pulled towards the Tyrannozord to give the Megazord arms. Finally, the Pterodactyl fell towards the combined mass of robots, attaching to the Megazord as its chest shield. The Rangers appeared in the cockpit as the Megazord rolled to a stop, its own momentum carrying it upright. Raising its gigantic fists, the Dino Megazord thundered over to join the Samurai Megazord.

Back down on the street, Antonio raised his samurai morpher. "Clawzord, I need you buddy," he said, writing symbols in the air. "Clawzord south, transform!" Across the city, the golden lobster zord crawled free of his home in Antonio's fish cart, growing to giant size and transforming into its warrior mode. Antonio arrived inside the robot's cockpit a second later. Down below, Tommy raised the Dragon Dagger to his mouth and played a familiar six-note tune. With a triumphant roar, the green Dragonzord spectacularly arrived in the city, and the town shook as the Dragonzord lumbered across to join the Clawzord and the two Megazords facing down Serrator and the Tenki brothers.

In a flash of green, Tommy teleported into the Dragonzord's cockpit. Settling into the seat, he hit the radio. "It's good to be back guys," he said, and the Dragonzord roared in response. "Let's take these creeps out."

"Amen to that," said Antonio.

Watching the zords assemble, Serrator sneered. "Four zords or forty, you robbed me of victory!" he shouted. "For that I will destroy you and your legacy forever!"

Holding out his arms, his two swords reappeared. Raising the weapons, Serrator took a giant step towards the two Megazords.

"Whatever else happens today," Jayden said, the radio broadcasting his voice through all the zords, "we stop Serrator here and now."

Eleven voices raised in unison. "Right!"

As the three Nighlok demons closed in, the Rangers pushed their zords forward. The city shook with every colossal footstep, the stage set for an epic confrontation.

"Ready for a rematch?" asked Tommy, as Kori powered towards the Dragonzord. Kori growled and raised his arms, but the Dragonzord spun around, swinging its tail drill and catching Kori on the chest, smashing the demon backwards. Kori recovered as Tommy pushed the Dragonzord forward, but even as the zord approached, Kori launched a barrage of energy blasts straight towards his opponent, shattering anything they hit. The front of the Dragonzord erupted in smoke and sparks, and Tommy steered the zord to safety. Kori advanced, expecting a defeated opponent. But the Dragonzord's chest began flashing, and a storm of missiles exploded from the zord, scorching across the city and slamming into the Nighlok. Now with the advantage, Tommy pushed the Dragonzord forward to continue the battle.

A few blocks away, Kaji closed in on the golden Clawzord. "Nothing's more delicious than cooked lobster," the Nighlok laughed.

"You might just wanna recheck the menu!" the Gold Ranger shot back. With Kaji in range, the Clawzord sliced its left blade straight for the Nighlok's head. The demon stepped around the blade, blocking the right blade when the Clawzord swung again. Striking the weapon away, Kaji held up his hands, channelling fire into them until they were glowing white hot, and slammed his fists into the Clawzord's chest. The zord stumbled back, and Antonio fought to regain control as Kaji followed after him, landing another blow to the zord's chest before aiming high. But the Clawzord stepped around the punch, and slashed its blades for Kaji's torso. Kaji had no time to retreat, and the swords carved through his chest armour in a shower of sparks.

Across the city, Serrator raised his two swords and leaped into the air, slashing his blades for his opponents as he fell. The two Megazords stepped around the swords, and Serrator turned and sliced both blades straight for the Samurai Megazord. The Megazord blocked the weapons with its own sword and forced Serrator back with a wide slash. Safely out of range, Serrator spun to face the Dino Megazord, aiming high, but the Megazord struck away the weapons and sent Serrator crashing backwards with a punch to the chest, following after him and landing a powerful blow to the head. Serrator recovered just as the Samurai Megazord attacked, ducking under a wide slice. When the Samurai Megazord swung again, Serrator raised both blades and held the giant samurai swords in check, before slashing them across the Megazord's chest. The blades carved through the lion zord in an explosion of fire, and the Samurai Rangers quickly steered their Megazord to safety.

"That did some damage," Jayden said.

Kevin glanced to his team-mates. "We need time to recover!"

"Got you covered," Jason called.

The Samurai Megazord fell back, and Serrator turned to the Dino Megazord as the Rangers pushed the Megazord forward. With a smile of easy prey, Serrator slashed one of his blades straight for the Megazord's head, but the Megazord caught the blade in a shower of sparks and struck it away. Blocking another slice, the Megazord slammed Serrator back with a punch to the stomach. Before the Nighlok king could recover, the Megazord charged after him, blocking a low kick and stunning him with a high punch. Serrator roared in defiance and lashed out with one of his swords, but as the blade fell, the Megazord aimed a punch straight for the descending sword and snapped the blade mid-swing. Serrator froze, staring dumbly at the destroyed blade, before looking back to the Megazord with fire in his eyes. He raised his remaining sword just as the recovered Samurai Megazord thundered towards him, swinging its own sword and breaking the second blade in two. Dazed, Serrator stumbled back, and side-by-side, the two Megazords powered forward to continue the battle.

Streets away, Dragonzord and the Clawzord had been forced back-to-back as Kori and Kaji closed in, Kori looming large in front of Tommy with Kaji raising his burning fists for the Clawzord.

"Antonio?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah?"

"What do you say we switch dance partners?"

In the Clawzord, Antonio grinned. "Sounds like a plan!"

The zords spun around on the spot, the Clawzord spinning right until it faced Kori while Dragonzord turned to stare down the approaching Kaji. With its opponent now too close to dodge, the Dragonzord raised its hands and blasted a barrage of missiles for the Nighlok, slamming Kaji back in a massive explosion that lit up the street. Behind them, Antonio pushed the Clawzord forward, slashing at Kori with its golden blades and forcing him back. Kori tried to fight off the onslaught, but couldn't get any kind of range to attack as the Clawzord kept advancing. Blasting the cold-hearted Nighlok back away, the Clawzord held up its twin swords. Lightning flashed, charging the blades with power, and the Clawzord slashed them towards Kori, the twin arcs slamming into the demon and instantly reducing him to ash.

"One down, one to go!" cheered Antonio.

Kaji's jaw fell open, and his face grew dark. "Kori!" he shouted. "You will pay for…"

Before he could finish, Dragonzord slammed its tail drill into his head, before another volley of missiles sent him to the ground.

"Antonio," Tommy said, "he's all yours."

"You got it! Green and gold, baby!" Antonio shouted. Raising its blades until they were again glowing with power, the Clawzord slashed the two weapons for the remaining Tenki brother. Kaji was immediately torn apart in a massive explosion that sent a fireball rocketing skyward.

With the Tenki brothers destroyed, Dragonzord and the Clawzord lumbered back over to join the two Megazords, the four giant robots surrounding the Nighlok king on all sides.

"You cannot stop me!" Serrator screamed. "I will wipe the human race off the planet!"

In the cockpit of the Samurai Megazord, Jayden nodded. "Then you leave us with no choice," he said. Turning to his team-mates, he raised his voice. "Ultimate Samurai combination, now!"

With a roar of power, the Bullzord rolled down from the hills, followed by the orange beetle, blue swordfish, white tiger and purple squid zords. As the procession reached the city, lightning from a suddenly cloudy sky struck down around the zords. In flashes of light, the zords began transforming, as the Bullzord rolled to a stop, rose vertical, and turned to face the Nighlok king. Seconds later, the combined form of the Clawzord and Megazord had taken its place on the Bullzord's body as the auxiliary zords connected to its back. The six Samurai Rangers found themselves standing in the cockpit with the Lightzord between Jayden and Antonio, as the Samurai Gigazord towered over Serrator.

"Samurai Gigazord, Rangers united!"

Across the city in the Dino Megazord, the Rangers raised their arms to the sky. "We call upon the power of Titanus!"

The sky grew dark, and with a powerful roar, the carrier zord Titanus punched through a row of low hills on the horizon, powering down towards the city. As Titanus approached, his tail split up to become two powerful shoulder cannons. Lifting into the air, the Dragonzord broke in half, its shoulders and legs swinging out, before lowering itself onto the Dino Megazord's shoulders. The Rangers turned to Tommy as he materialised in the cockpit to join them. A second later, the combined mass of zords descended into Titanus's back, and the Dino Ultrazord was now side-by-side with the Samurai Gigazord.

"Ultrazord, power up!"

Serrator hissed. "How dare you?" he screamed. "You will never defeat me! I am a Nighlok king!"

"You've threatened the safety of the Earth for the last time," Jayden said.

In the Ultrazord cockpit, Zac nodded. "You want to see the Sanzu River so badly? Here's a one-way ticket."

"Let's do this together," Jason said.

In the Gigazord, Jayden nodded. "You got it. Shogun mode, power of the ancestors!" As the ancient Shogun armour appeared around Jayden's suit, the Samurai Rangers raised their blades to the sky. Across the city, the older Rangers reached for their controls.

"Symbol power, mega strike!"

"Lock on, and fire!"

A cataclysmic barrage exploded forth from the two zords, scorching through the air and slamming into Serrator. The Nighlok king was instantly torn apart in a massive explosion that rocked the city and sent a plume of smoke high into the air. In the Ultrazord, the older Rangers turned to each other and cheered, while in the Gigazord cockpit, Mike turned to Jayden.

"Is it really over?" the Green Samurai Ranger asked.

"He's gone," Jayden nodded. "We did it. We all did it," and in a voice so quiet, Mike almost didn't hear him, the Red Samurai Ranger added, "Power Rangers, victory is ours."

_To be concluded._


	11. Chapter 10

_Author's notes - And here we come. Dguice - thanks for your compliments! I love a good zord battle :). JasonTKD - I think it's a testament to the threat that the _King of the Underworld_ would legitimately pose, that it took two side-by-side Ultrazord blasts to finally put the guy down for good. Titanus is my favourite zord of all time, and if I have the opportunity to have him pop up being awesome, I totally will :). _

_Thanks to everybody for reading! It was a long story, but I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The theme of the story is, the adventure continues, and more than anything else, I wanted to give the MMPR characters an epilogue where you see that they still love each other deeply, and that they're gonna be okay. And I think I did (and threw Titanus and Dragonzord in for the fun of it :)). Plus I wanted to put my own spin on the Samurai team, and I think I did that too. Anyway, on with the final chapter. Thanks for sticking with me everybody! I really appreciated all the kind words :).  
_

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Jason paused by the door to the room he'd shared with Zac and Tommy for the last few days. With an old smile, he grabbed the spare clothes on the bed and crammed them into his backpack. Packing would never be his strongest skill, but he'd made his peace with it long ago. Satisfied he hadn't forgotten anything, he reached for Tommy's toothbrush and turned back to the door. Ji was standing outside in the corridor.

"You're leaving?" Ji asked.

Jason nodded, and slung his backpack around his shoulders. "I hope we didn't impose too much," Jason said, and grinned. "It must feel like you can never get rid of me."

Ji offered Jason a smile in return. "On the contrary," he said softly, "I wanted to say thank you for taking care of my Rangers."

"You did a good job raising Jayden," Jason said. "He's so much more than just a good Ranger. He's a good kid."

"Well I like to think that I had some help in that department," Ji said, and gestured towards the front of the house. "The other Rangers sent me to get you. They're waiting on the lawn."

Standing on the grass as the older Rangers collected their luggage, Emily frowned. "Do you have to go so soon?" she asked.

"I know, right? It totally sucks," Kim said. "But we've all got lives and jobs waiting for us back home."

"We'll miss you," Mia said. "I feel like I've learned so much."

"Us too," Kim smiled. "C'mere," and she held out her arms to pull Emily and Mia into a sad hug.

Tommy glanced to Mike beside him. "Yeah," he said with a grin. "We should do this again sometime."

Mike laughed. "Not on your life!"

Behind them, Antonio stepped out of the house, carrying the last of Billy and Trini's equipment. "Thanks for all your help with the house's computer system," the Gold Ranger said. "It's like ten times faster than it used to be. Honestly, though?" And Antonio lowered his voice. "I wished I could've met your son."

Billy reached down and took Trini's hand. "Maybe some day," the Blue Ranger replied.

Up on the deck, Jayden turned as the door slid open, and Ji and Jason stepped outside. Ji quickly made his way down towards the other Rangers, leaving the two Red Rangers standing together.

"It's a shame you can't stay," Jayden said.

"I wish the circumstances had been better," Jason began, "but honestly? It was great to see you again."

"Absolutely," Jayden said. "Thanks so much for all your help."

Jason indicated the group of Samurai Rangers before them. "Keep them in line and we can call it even."

"Deal," Jayden laughed.

"And if you're ever in town, drop by and say hello," Jason continued. "We can introduce you to the others. Seriously, don't be a stranger. You don't need to wait for the world to end to call me. Any time you need help, advice, or even someone just to talk to after a rough day, call me, all right?"

"Count on it," Jayden nodded. With that, the two friends wrapped their arms around each other in a bearhug.

"C'mon guys!" Zac called.

Stepping away from Jayden, Jason joined his team-mates on the lawn, and gave Tommy back the toothbrush he'd forgotten. Emily and Mia nudged Jayden's shoulders, and he glanced back to them, blushed, then turned to the departing Rangers. "We do this thing sometimes," he said. "It's kinda corny. Rangers together…"

"Rangers forever," Jason finished. "I don't know. I kinda like it."

"Good luck with the Nighlok," Tommy said.

"Yeah," Kimberly agreed. "If you ever need us, call us."

"And we will come with great speed," Billy said.

"That's a promise," Trini finished.

"And Kevin," Zac said, turning to the Blue Samurai Ranger, "don't forget about the little things."

Jason stood tall and raised his voice. "Rangers," he said, "until next time," and they reached for their wrists. As the Samurai Rangers waved goodbye, the six Mighty Morphin' Rangers tapped their communicators and disappeared from the scene in six bright flashes of light, streaking up into the sky and vanishing over the horizon a second later.

"I can't believe they're gone," Antonio murmured, leaning against Jayden.

"I hope _they'll_ be okay," Mia said.

Jayden thought of his old karate teacher. "I think they will be," he said.

"Yo Kev," Mike began, "what did Zac mean when he said to remember the little things? What was that about?"

Kevin glanced around nervously, and seemed very interested in the grass. "Oh that?" he asked. "That was just… nothing. A private joke," but as they made their way into the house, he stepped over to Emily. "Hey Emily, you're good with the internet thing, right?"

Emily giggled. "Of course. What do you need?"

"I was hoping you could look somebody up for me? An old swimming friend."

"Sure," Emily said. "Do they have a Facebook page?"

"What's a Facebook page?" Kevin frowned.

"Oh Kevin."

* * *

Unlocking the front door, Billy and Trini stepped back into their house. The place was cool and quiet, and neither of them wanted to disturb the peace. Trini quietly slid their backpacks onto the counter and began carefully unloading the equipment as Billy put it away.

"I wonder what crazy adventure awaits us tomorrow," the Blue Ranger murmured.

Trini smiled. "I suppose we'll have to call work and tell them our schedules are back to normal," she said. "At least for the time being."

"And go get Ryan from your parents," Billy added, and leaned back against the bench top. "I missed our junior scientist."

"I missed him too," Trini said. "I called them before we left Panorama City. My parents aren't expecting us for," and she checked her watch, "another hour or so."

Billy paused to meet Trini's gaze, the silence laden with unspoken possibilities. "Really?" the Blue Ranger asked. "We have an hour of time to ourselves?" and he leaned in close to Trini. "Well Mrs Cranston," and Trini grinned and laughed. "That is simply outstanding."

* * *

Tommy stopped at the front gate of his house and collected the mail from the letterbox. Hopefully he hadn't missed or forgotten anything overdue.

"You're good?" Kimberly asked.

Tommy nodded. "Thanks for walking me home," he said. "I can see why Jason still does this. I think we did a lot of good this week."

"I think so too," Kimberly said. "One last great hurrah," and she stepped away from the fence. "I'll see you in time for the next one."

Tommy waved as Kimberly disappeared down the street. Dropping the mail onto the deck, Tommy sat down on the front step. Pulling the Dragonzord coin out of his pocket, he stared at it silently for a few minutes as he flipped it between his fingers. After a while, he heard the gate creak open, and looked up to see Kimberly walking back towards him.

"For the record," she began, "I always thought you looked better in green."

Tommy laughed as Kim sat down beside him, and he shuffled over to make room. "All these years," he began, "I thought the Green Ranger had been a curse. Something I needed to overcome. But maybe he wasn't so bad after all, you know? Something inspiring came out of that. Maybe I needed Mike to show me."

"Maybe you did. He's a cool kid. They all are."

Tommy glanced to the Pink Ranger. "So Mike and Emily?"

"Deeply in love," Kim nodded. "They'll figure it out in their own time."

"Good."

"So what now?"

Tommy leaned back and shrugged. "I think I should go see the museum about that job you were telling me about," he said.

"Tommy Oliver the palaeontologist eh?"

"Weirder things have happened," Tommy said, then met Kim's gaze. "Whenever I feel lost, you always have this ability to point me in the right direction. I don't know how you do it, but I don't know what I'd do without you."

Kim smiled. "That's what I'm here for."

* * *

Switching the light on, Jason and Zac stepped into Jason's kitchen. Jason dropped the pile of unread newspapers on the counter, and pulled the curtains open over the sink to let some light into the house.

"I suppose life's back to normal now?" Zac asked.

Jason sat down at the counter. "At least until I catch up," he said, and nodded to the pile of newspapers in front of him.

Zac sighed, and pulled out the seat next to Jason's. "Remember what you said last week, sitting right here at this kitchen counter?" he asked. "That you still feel like a Red Ranger all the time?"

Jason nodded. Was that only a few days ago? It felt like a lifetime had passed since then. "Yeah?"

"I'll tell you a secret," Zac said. "We all feel like that. Kim still feels like the Pink Ranger. Every day, I still think of myself as the Black Ranger. I don't think that'll ever change." He paused, and dropped his Mastodon Power Coin onto the counter. "From that very first morning in the Youth Centre, Zordon knew this was a lifetime deal. He knew that we were Power Rangers long before we got these coins, and he knew that we'd be Rangers for the rest of our lives. Long after Rita and Zedd were magically purified and then Zedd decided to run for mayor."

Jason laughed. "Do you think we should be keeping a closer eye on that?"

Zac considered that for a second. "Actually, yes," he said. "But the point I'm making is that this isn't an exclusive club anymore. You're not the only Red Ranger. I'm not the only Black Ranger. The weight of the world that used to be on our shoulders? There is literally an army of people to help us carry that now. We inspired an entire generation of kids to stand up, to be stronger, and to do the right thing even when it hurts. For all the things we accomplished in all those years, that's what I'm most proud of. And you know what? You should be too. So it's okay to not be the Red Ranger sometimes. You know, every now and then, just be Jason Scott. Big brother. Awesome friend. Inspiring teacher. And terrible, terrible boyfriend." He paused as Jason blushed. "Seriously, it's been days. You need to call Emily."

"I will," Jason said. "Thanks." The Red Ranger stood up and walked over to the mantle, opening the safe hidden there. "The world's in good hands. Jayden, Mike and the other Rangers showed me that." Zac watched as Jason unclasped his communicator and pulled his morpher from his back pocket. "So maybe I can leave these here," and he placed them carefully in the safe. "Just for now."

Zac stood up. "Wow."

"You think Emily will talk to me?" Jason asked.

"C'mon, I'll walk you over and put in a good word for you," Zac said. "Never fear. The Zac-man will always be here."

And with a laugh, the two old friends headed outside into the warm afternoon sunshine.

* * *

Later that night, far away in a sprawling old house on the outskirts of Panorama City, Mike stepped out into the cool night air to find Jayden on the deck, staring silently up to the stars.

"You think we'll ever see them again?" Mike asked.

Jayden smiled in the shadows. "That's the thing, isn't it?" he said, and turned to the younger Ranger. "I think the best part about being a Ranger is that you never know when the next adventure might be right about the corner."

"I think so too," Mike agreed.

"Then c'mon little brother," Jayden said. "Let's head back inside and see what tomorrow brings."

"I bet it'll be something really awesome."

"Me too Mike. Me too."

_The End._


End file.
